Transformers: Frontier
by GenghisQuan
Summary: Two years after the Macross Frontier finale, humanity finds itself drawn into the Cybertronian Civil War. If you like giant robots, hop right in. Reviews much appreciated.
1. Chapter 1: First Contact

A/N: The Transformers present here are a combination of their counterparts in G1, Bayformers, and Transformers Animated. I've also taken some liberties with the universe to bring TFverse and Macrossverse together. Given the tendency for a sizeable chunk of the Transformers fanbase to declare any change RUINED FOREVER/RAPING MY CHILDHOOD, I feel it necessary to request that you not flame me. Constructive criticism is always good, though.

Also, song lyrics/turns of phrase/idioms/etc appear in English. I assume based on DYRL that everyone really speaks English, but we only hear Japanese as a translation convention.

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Chapter 1: First Contact

"_The first contacts between human and Zentradi and between human and Vajra were both characterized by violence borne out of misunderstanding. The question is, how can we prevent such misunderstandings with subsequent alien races? I, for one, am not willing to stake our species' future on the purported Power of Song."_

_~Dr. Stanley Maher, Ph. D, on human-alien relations_

The _Guantánamo_-class stealth carrier _Belleau Wood_ was abuzz with activity as she floated about in geosynchronous orbit over the planet of New Frontier, appearing from planetside as a bluish-gray elongated metallic box set against a sea of black. Her crew paid no heed to the blue-and-green orb of beauty below them, for they had a more important job – standing vigil over that orb of beauty and defending it from possible threats. New Frontier was the only habitable Earth-like world in the galaxy, found only after years of searching by many large-scale colonization fleets and a costly war in which the _Belleau Wood_ lost many of her sister ships. As part of the _Macross Frontier_ colonization fleet that found the planet, it now fell to the _Belleau Wood_ and the other surviving ships of the _Frontier_ fleet to protect their new home.

Though the _Belleau Wood_ was an aging design to be gradually replaced by the newer and sleeker _Uraga-_class carriers, she was still a powerful warship in her own right, boasting a complement of over 40 variable fighters and an experienced crew that were eager to prove their vessel not old, but in her prime. And so it was that Petty Officer First Class Georg Heinkel was able to pick up an odd reading on his sensors and react 5.2 seconds faster than the fleet average.

"Captain, I have two defold signatures from an unidentified source," Heinkel reported, a slight Germanic accent in his voice. "Looks like two spaceships of unknown design about half the size of one of our Northampton frigates. Orders?"

"Comm crews, patch me in," Captain Omar Montgomery replied in his softer Received Pronunciation. The accent, like the captain's ship, was becoming phased out over the years, and some suspected this was the reason the captain was so attached to his beloved _Gitmo_-class.

"Comlink online, Captain," Ensign Megumi Kaminska replied as she flipped a series of switches that brought a heads-up display. "You are good to go."

Montgomery nodded, then turned to a comm array that appeared and cleared his throat. "Unidentified vessels, this is the _Guantánamo_-class stealth carrier _Belleau Wood_ of the New United Nations Spacy _Macross Frontier_ colonization fleet. We represent an alliance of human and Zentradi that have established a colony on this planet. Please identify yourselves. We hope that our peoples can come to peaceful coexistence." As the Captain spoke, he found himself praying fervently that the shipboard translators worked. The devices were engineered in the two years following the Vajra War, making use of Fold Quartz neural interfaces to send signals that did not just transmit the speaker's words, but a rough representation of their thoughts as well. It seemed to work well enough in testing, but experimental technology that worked well in testing had an uncanny tendency to bugger up right when they were needed.

Long seconds passed as the crew of the _Belleau Wood_ awaited a response. Suddenly, Heinkel got another reading on his sensors, one that alarmed him. "Captain, one of the alien ships just fired on the other, destroying it. Are we to assume they are hostile?"

***

"The rebel ship has been terminated, Director," came the steely voice of the remaining alien ship. "Per your orders, I am PowerLinked with Blackout and have disruptor bombs ready to launch. Awaiting further instructions," The ship said.

Intelligence Director Soundwave considered his options. It appears his Autobot quarry have managed to abandon ship just in time, judging by the images of a metallic meteor shower that Laserbeak, his personal reconnaissance drone, had sent back earlier. _How troublesome_, Soundwave thought. Then again, the Cybertronian Civil War had been going on for over half a million years, and to hope for that it could end so simply was just wishful thinking at its most illogical. He looked at the transmissions from Laserbeak, noting what appeared to be a scouting party approaching their position. Two groups of twelve, the first appeared to consist of reconnaissance craft, judging by the radiation emissions, and the second fighters. Nine of the recon craft seemed to be drones, but the other fifteen had heat signatures. Soundwave realized that there must be organics driving them.

"We will engage, Astrotrain," Soundwave replied to the ship in his own synthesized voice. "Reformat the Dreadwings to match the fighters. Laserbeak, assume the form of one of their recon drones. On my command, fire an opening shot, then open your bay doors. Deploy them along with Blitzwing."

"Aggressive, Director," Astrotrain commented. "This is not your usual style."

"Necessary. Our mission must be one of stealth. It will be compromised if this 'Belleauwood' vessel reports our presence. What has been seen, must be unseen." Soundwave replied, observing another one of Laserbeak's images that depicted a network of satellites. A plan was forming in his mind.

***

"Mother, this is Delta-Lead. Ghosts are online and transmitting images. Request confirmation of receipt. Over."

Three RVF-171 Nightmares, each controlling three AIF-7S Ghosts, raced outwards from the _Belleau Wood_'s launch bays. Closely behind them were Bravo Squadron, which consisted of eight VF-171 Nightmares led by four VF-171EX Nightmare Pluses. The two squadrons made up half of the _Belleau Wood_'s complement, and Captain Montgomery had ordered the other half to prepare to scramble, as well as sent a comm to the two nearest ships in the vicinity.

"Incoming transmission from Delta-Lead," Kaminska reported. "It's the ship that fired…I've never seen a vessel like this."

"Transmission received, Delta-Lead. Over," Montgomery called back as he looked at the images being broadcast on his HUD. Indeed, the ship was oddly configured, resembling neither human nor Zentradi nor Protodeviln nor Vajra in design. From the looks of things, it seemed to be a combination transport and warship, made up of many small interlocking parts that connected smoothly in some places and jutted out at strange angles in others. More confounding, there were bits and pieces sticking out of the ship that almost seemed like they belonged on some different vehicle altogether.

His thoughts were interrupted by a brilliant purplish beam that suddenly lanced out from the armed transport's starboard hull and swept across the two squadrons, leaving blossoms of fire in its wake. Then something more surprising happened. From out of the ship popped four VF-171s, an AIF-7S Ghost, and a smaller gunship that resembled a VB-6 König Monster but shared the same design oddities as the transport ship. Suddenly, Montgomery's HUD flashed as if a sun had gone nova in its vicinity, and then everything went black.

***

"Shit, I'm blind!"

"This is Delta-Lead! The Ghosts aren't responding! Something's jamming their signal receivers! Our EPM has no effect!"

"Bogey on my six! I can't shake them!"

As he listened to the radio chatter, First Lieutenant Wong Hau found himself wondering just what kind of enemy he and his comrades were fighting. Even though Delta Squadron and his own Bravo Squadron initially outnumbered the enemy fighters by nearly four to one, the initial shot by the now-known-to-be hostile vessel had halved their numbers. The remaining twelve fired a salvo of missiles at the enemy ship, but none got past its pinpoint barrier system. And no one knew just what to make of the fact that their enemies seemed to be NUNS aerospace craft.

"I got your back, Delta-3. Missiles locked… Hey, what the–"

"Bravo Lead's down! This is Bravo-2 to Mother, we need more support, over!"

What more, these variable fighters, while appearing identical to the standard NUNS variable fighters, were much tougher than they seemed. One of them actually took am entire salvo of micro-missiles to take down, and the Ghost was fighting in a manner reminiscent of the _Macross Galaxy_ fleet's V-9 Ghosts. Most puzzling, the enemy VF-171s were performing maneuvers impossible for human pilots – indeed, if there were humans in them, they should be dead by now.

"Bravo-2, this is Mother Actual. Alpha and Charlie Squadrons are being prepped to relieve you as we speak. Retreat to Mother. Over."

"Roger," Wong replied. One of the surviving enemy VFs had gotten behind him. "Enough of this shit," Wong growled as he transformed his Nightmare Plus into Gerwalk mode, preparing to swing back, change to Battroid mode, and put some gun into that damn bogey.

Wong had just pulled away and began the transformation when he noted the bogey transforming as well, but in a much different fashion than any variable fighter he'd seen. The entire surface of the plane broke apart into many small plates, shifting and turning amongst themselves in some intricate dance before forming into an ape-like monstrosity. The thing transformed fast too, so that it was already in a robotic form when Wong's craft was still in Gerwalk mode. Still, Wong was a trained professional, and the two mecha pulled their gunpods on each other and blasted at nearly the same time. A series of rapid shots from Wong's weapon slagged the enemy Battroid's armor in many places.

Unfortunately for Wong, his opponent's gunpod replied with a hellish beam of energy that speared through the center of his Nightmare Plus, overwhelming the fighter's pinpoint barrier system and striking its reactor core. A second later, all that remained of Wong's aerospace craft were bits and pieces of wreckage scattered about the cosmos.

Another beam pierced the sky, this one coming from the main cannon of the alien "König Monster," which had anchored itself to its mothership and changed into some sort of artillery mode. The shot obliterated the rest of the fighters.

During the melee, no one noticed a lone satellite floating towards the planet below.


	2. Chapter 2: Descent of Angels

A/N: Thanks to Dan, Amir, and Nabz for the feedback and help. Also, for those not up-to-speed on Macrossverse or military organization terminology – Macross is known for having "variable fighters," which are basically fighter jets that transform into a humanoid "Battroid" mode and an intermediate "Gerwalk" mode (looks like a jet with arms and chicken-walker legs). Also, two planes make up a section, two sections make up a flight, several flights make a squadron, and multiple squadrons make an air wing.

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Chapter 2: Descent of Angels

"_He who controls the flow of information, controls the flow of battle."  
~Soundwave, Decepticon Intelligence Director_

"_Speed is the essence of war.__ Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions."  
~Sun Tzu, human (Chinese) strategist_

Soundwave floated towards the NUNS satellite, his scanners and transformation cog working furiously to match his body to the machine. Soon, the Decepticon commander had gotten close enough for wires and cables to snake out from his body and inject themselves into the satellite. There were several layers of security, but it was nothing that his hundreds of millennia of experience could not get past. Soon, he was downloading protocols, tech specs, maps, deployment plans, every amount of information he could get his hands on. No one detected him; Blackout's disruptor bomb, boosted by Astrotrain's raw power, had knocked out every sensor and communications array within a hundred-kilometer radius for several minutes, which was more than enough time for him to work.

Once as the download was complete, Soundwave rent the machine to pieces with his tendrils and used his newly acquired information to patch himself into the NUNS network. Even if someone was to come back and check, all they would find is a strangely intact satellite surrounded by debris – certainly not an alien robotic imposter. Soundwave then closed his optics to contemplate and process the information he had received.

In a flash, Soundwave understood much about these creatures, these "humans" his forces were fighting. Their weapons of war amused him with their pale imitation of the transformation technology that was the Cybertronians' defining feature. Yet the humans had also alarmed him, demonstrating unexpected power despite their lack of technological sophistication.

"Astrotrain, report status. What are casualties?" Soundwave asked.

"Three Dreadwing drones lost, Director. Moderate damage to Laserbeak. Blitzwing is scratched. I still function," Astrotrain replied.

Yes, these humans were dangerous indeed if they could harm Cybertronians. And given what pieces of human history and culture Soundwave understood from those few seconds of contemplation, it was almost certain that these humans would side if the Autobots should the Cybertronian Civil War reach this world.

_Stealth must be of the essence_, Soundwave thought as he broadcast a message to his forces.

"Assume Protoforms for planetside drop. I will give you further instructions upon landing."

***

"We've lost Delta and Bravo Squadrons, sir," Heinkel reported from his station. Montgomery closed his eyes and sighed.

"No word on enemy casualties?" The captain asked. If enough enemy fighters had been killed, then committing Alpha and Charlie Squadrons would have been his next move. If not, then doing so would just result in twenty-four dead pilots and a carrier defended only by her point defense guns.

"No, sir. The alien ship is firing some kind of projectile weapon that is interfering with our sensors," Kaminska replied, her words being accentuated by many red warning lights and blaring sirens. "The technicians are working on the problem, but no solution has been found. It comes and goes in waves, I think. The pattern was irregular before, and so we were able to receive the warnings from Bravo and Delta, but now they appear to have perfected their timing. At this point, we can only send outbound communications."

Ordinarily, a blackout of this extent would have been more than sufficient grounds for the entire ship to devolve into a general state of panic. But Captain Montgomery did not allow panic on his vessel, and so while the techs worked frantically behind the scenes to get the sensors online again, the only show of emotion he displayed was a short sigh. "Have any of our sister ships responded to our hails?"

"The last time we had our sensors working, the _Glendale_ and the _Sussex_ were approaching our position," Kaminska said as she looked at a stopwatch. "Bridge, close your eyes," she announced. Another flash lit up the screen, followed by echoes of curses from tech crews all over the ship.

"I see," Montgomery said, nodding. _Glendale_ was a _Northampton_-class stealth frigate that carried a similar number of variable fighters as the _Belleau Wood_, and the _Sussex_ was a stealth cruiser that, while it did not carry as many variable fighters, it made up for the deficiency by being packed with guns and missile batteries. "Deploy Alpha and Charlie as a Battroid screen," he ordered. "Have Alpha-Lead's flight do a fly-by as soon as friendly ships arrive, then engage the alien ship when we have their attention." There. That should be sufficient. All NUNS ships came with the ability to allow the crew to see outside with the naked eye, although that was generally a last-ditch option. Even if the _Glendale_ and the _Sussex_ could not communicate with the _Belleau Wood_, they could see well enough to follow the _Belleau Wood_'s lead.

Montgomery prayed that was enough. He had a sneaking suspicion that shredding a few squadrons of fighters was not all their new enemies were capable of.

***

"Blackout, report status," Soundwave called out from his vantage point in orbit. "How are you holding up?"

"I have ten more minutes," Blackout replied. Soundwave detected significant amounts of strain in his subordinate's voice. Such was the limit of the PowerLink technology that all Voyager-class Cybertronians carried – it allowed them to link up to their passengers' Power Chip Rectifiers, allowing the Voyager to use any special technology its passenger may have. However, maintaining the link placed an incredible amount of strain on both Cybertronians, and there have been cases where the smaller Cybertronian actually went offline due to having its processors burnt out from the effort.

"Hang in there," Soundwave said. Not out of any sense of concern, of course; the Decepticon commander was above such petty emotions. Rather, it was simply because Soundwave did not believe in wasting the sparks of his subordinates needlessly. Over the years, it had been proven countless times that not treating one's underlings like cannon fodder tended to achieve much better results than doing so. He then switched his comm to Astrotrain. "Are our forces prepared for launch?"

"They are, Director," Astrotrain replied, opening his bay door.

"Good. Bonecrusher, come in," Soundwave called out. "Acknowledge receipt of drop coordinates."

"Coordinates received," Bonecrusher replied, adding a grunt of anger. "By the Pit, I hate flying Protoform."

"You hate everything," Astrotrain snarked back. "Now get out of my launch bay."

"I hate Pit-blasted smart-vox Voyagers," Bonecrusher grumbled as he shifted into his Protoform mode, his frame twisting and turning until it became a ball-like shape. Several hooks attached themselves to various parts of his body and shot him out of Astrotrain's body, while booster engines fired to continue the motion.

"Bonecrusher is clear, Director," Astrotrain reported.

"Visual confirmed," Soundwave replied. "Brawl, come in. Acknowledge receipt of drop coordinates."

***

Captain Veer Pratap Singh scanned the depths of space, looking for any further developments. A flight of variable fighters had already flown towards what he presumed to be the _Glendale_. Singh chuckled as he imagined how Rahman Hayaat Khan, the _Glendale_'s straight-laced communications officer and his cousin by marriage, would react to the sight of four Battroids moving up to actual touching distance. Soon enough, the flight leader had managed to get the _Glendale's_ attention and was now trying to relay Montogomery's orders via International Sign Language.

Suddenly, a gleam caught Singh's eye, and the air captain turned to get a better view. The gleam got bigger and bigger, until Singh saw that it was actually some kind of metallic meteor headed directly for the _Belleau Wood_. As the meteor got closer, Singh thought he could see anatomical features on the thing, as if it were a robot curled up into a ball.

"Charlie Squadron, shoot it down!" Singh yelled through his comm, not caring that no one could hear him. He fired several bursts from his mecha's gunpod, then unleashed a swarm of MDE missiles. Others in his squadron got the same idea and unloaded their own ordnance on Singh's target. Yet others noticed another meteor coming in behind it, and fired on that one as well. Waves and waves of missiles streaked towards the incoming giants, as if the intent was to conduct a massacre of non-fleshy life forms. However, due to a lack of organization, the missile salvos ended up more as a series of uncoordinated and miscellaneous shots instead of staggered waves of destruction. There were more than a couple of holes in the killing field, and Singh maneuvered his mecha over to plug those holes with his gunpod.

He was definitely not prepared to see the leading meteor deploy two gargantuan claws that crackled with energy and swipe at the incoming missiles, intent on swatting them out of the air. Upon contact, instead of exploding normally, the missiles seemed to disintegrate. Singh and his wingmen fired more shots, and the _Belleau Wood_'s point defense did likewise, all to no avail; though the pinpoint barrier system surrounding the meteor was dropping, the attacks were not enough to stop its approach. As the giant clawed projectile passed by, Singh thought he could almost see a head somewhere in there, and that the thing flashed a malicious gleam in what might have been its eyes as it blew past him and slammed through the hull of the _Belleau Wood_. Seconds later, an impact from a second similarly-sized projectile tore the carrier in two.

***

"Good hunting, little brother," Astrotrain called out as Blitzwing's Protoform took off and slammed through a triangular vessel that according to Soundwave was the _Glendale_. The other ship, a smaller one named the _Sussex_, had met a similar fate, torn apart by Barricade's Protoform. Escape pods were being dropped, but Soundwave had sent out more of his personal minions to mop up, and every so often there would be a brilliant explosion as yet another group of survivors were stripped of their status as such. Meanwhile, Blackout unlinked himself, changed to Protoform, and shot out of Astrotrain's launch bay, aiming to finish off the wounded _Glendale_.

As Blackout sped forth on his mission, Astrotrain prepared to disengage and hide among the stars, as was his usual procedure on stealth missions – after all, there were very few disguises suitable for hundred-meter robots. Suddenly, he picked up a transmission from Soundwave. Astrotrain's optics lit up upon comprehending the contents.

"So, there is a place where a Cybertronian of my size can blend in? This is my kind of war," Astrotrain replied, rearranging his many components into an infrequently used Protoform and blasting off. "Orders received, Director. Let the land called 'New Gallia' beware my coming."


	3. Chapter 3: Concerning Fleshlings

A/N: On "Captains" – in the navy, a captain is the highest ranking officer that commands only one ship. He is an O-6, which makes his equivalent in other branches a colonel. In non-Navy branches, captains are O-4; they command companies (90-150 guys) in the army and squadrons in the air force. I'm assuming NUNS ship crews follow navy structure, and Valkyrie pilots follow air force structure.

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"_Fold Wave - A naturally existing energy wave in super dimension space that travels effectively Faster-Than-Light and is used for near-instantaneous intergalactic communication. The mineral _fold quartz_ allows for communication via fold waves as used by the Vajra; humans and Zzentradi infected with the V-Type virus can do the same, although this is fatal to those who were not infected in utero."  
~New General Encyclopedia, 5__th__ Edition_

Chapter 3: Concerning Fleshlings

Ten sleek forms zipped across the black where the _Belleau Wood_ made its last patrol, the exhaust trails from their engines making them appear as streaks of light among the stars. Three were Queadluun-Rea powered armor units, three were modified AIF-7S Ghosts, and the rest were VF-25 Messiahs. All bore the insignia of the Strategic Military Services, colloquially known as SMS.

SMS had started out as a private military contractor company hired by the Frontier government to bolster its forces. Due to its unique position as a weapons tester for the LAI Corporation, SMS had access to much unique and advanced weaponry that standard NUNS forces did not have, including the VF-25 Messiah variable fighter. Its owner, a Zentradi business mogul named Richard Birla, had been implicated in the conspiracy that started the Vajra War, resulting in SMS being seized from him after the war ended. However, due to the instrumental role that the fighting men and women of SMS played in the conclusive battle of that war, SMS was allowed to keep its autonomy as well as its contract with the Frontier government. Now, they were under the command of Captain Jeffery Wilder, captain of the _Macross Quarter_, with NUNS First Lieutenant Cathy Glass as their government liaison.

"This is Pixie-Lead, we're not picking up anything, just wreckage," Captain Klan Klang called out into her comm as her red Queadluun-Rea's sensors scanned the area. The mecha resembled what would happen if you took a ballerina and placed her in the pads of a hockey or American Football player – on the whole, it was a graceful-looking machine, save for the massive shoulder and knee pads that held missile launchers and the impersonal grille that formed its face. Despite its designation as a powered armor, the Rea was easily around the size of the Messiahs that the rest of SMS flew. That was because Klan was a Meltran – a female member of the race of giants that had once warred with humanity – and was only slightly shorter than a variable fighter in its humanoid Battroid mode. "What about you, Skull-Lead?"

"Nothing here either," Major Ozma Lee replied. "Hmph. These guys just die like jackals," he scoffed. "Skull-3, what about you?"

"Simon, Johann, Peter…no signals," First Lieutenant Luca Angeloni answered as he checked the transmissions from his affectionately nicknamed Ghost drones. Luca piloted a recon variant of the VF-25, which came with a flat circular radome attached to the top. "I don't think that's fair to them, Major. Their equipment is inferior to ours, after all…" Luca had experienced that firsthand, when the majority of SMS had gone on an investigation back during the Vajra war, and he had stayed behind to protect his girlfriend Nanase Matsuura. The Nightmare Plus wasn't a bad plane; it just couldn't touch the Messiah.

Ozma was about to make some retort along the lines of "it's not the machine, but the man inside" when a triumphant shout from Luca's comm entered his ears.

"Major! I found one of the Ghosts! It's damaged, but still functional."

"Good," Ozma replied. "Skull Squadron, deploy tethers and bring it in to the _Quarter_."

***

Soundwave was in the middle of processing the information he obtained from his hacking of the NUNS network earlier. Despite his highly advanced processors, there was a lot of information to sift through for important pieces, and he was growing slightly annoyed with the sheer amount of useless slag out there. He must have browsed through at least two million images of common household pets with misspelled captions. Why did these meatbags use their FoldWeb for such insipid things?

Suddenly, he received a transmission from his minion Laserbeak. Soundwave opened it up and saw that the drone was currently being taken into a ship of some kind, escorted by small vessels similar to the ones the Decepticons had engaged earlier, along with three other robotic craft that did not seem capable of transformation. The ship itself appeared to be a much smaller version of the main human flagship, and the words _SMS Macross Quarter_ were painted across its sides.

Soundwave immediately filtered through his databanks, searching for any and all information on the vessels he had just seen. What he found, especially in regard to the _Quarter_'s capabilities, surprised him immensely. _Megatron must be aware of this at once_, Soundwave thought as he began to compose a message to his leader. After he sent the note, Soundwave made on last order to Laserbeak, then continued attempting to digest the volumes of information from the human network.

"Operation: Infiltration. Primary Objective: Intelligence gathering. Secondary Objective: Self-preservation. Tertiary Objective: Sabotage."

***

_Battle Frontier_ was the Macross Frontier fleet's flagship, a 16.55-million ton monstrosity that was over 1.6 kilometers long and housed around 800 variable fighters and attack craft, as well 200 non-transforming Destroid mecha for point defense. It was covered from bow to stern with anti-ship guns, smaller beam turrets and point defense, and its main Macross cannon could easily wipe out a small fleet with a single shot.

Admiral Oliver Perry was a mustachioed man of average size and fair complexion nearing the end of his middle ages. He was also the captain of _Battle Frontier_ as well as the commanding officer of the other ships in the Frontier Fleet. This, combined with his experience back during Space War I and the Vajra War, meant that Perry had a vast amount of power at his disposal.

Yet Perry also knew that as much power as he wielded, he was not invincible, as the loss of three ships within the course of thirty minutes demonstrated. At this moment, he pored over a map and a set of media files containing what little footage there was of the last minutes of the _Belleau Wood_ and the meteor shower afterwards. As far as he could piece together, there seemed to be two waves of meteorites, the first of which landed sporadically, the second of which seemed very peculiar as to which areas each meteorite hit.

"New Gallia Allied Zentradi Base, Wellington Army Base, Curtis LeMay Air Force Base, Shinnakasu/Northrop Grumman's manufacturing plant in Island 4, and Island 1's police department," Perry murmured to himself. "All preceded by a communications blackout." Part of him hoped that this was mere coincidence, part of him recognized the signs of a hostile attack, and part of him toyed with the idea that everything would just end up being some big misunderstanding that would be cleared up as soon as they had some popular idol singer belt out some tunes.

His attention then turned to the most recent transmission from the ground recovery crews, who had been extremely unlucky in finding survivors. Most of the escape pods never even made it off their respective ships; such was the nature of space battle. However, one was recovered from the _Belleau Wood_, containing a tech crew and one Ensign Megumi Kaminska. _Interesting combination of names, _Perry thought as he made a note to launch an investigation as soon as possible.

***

Many decorations adorned the Tenkumon Concert Hall in preparation of the second anniversary of the end of the Vajra War, which would feature a joint concert of idol singers Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee, whose combined songs finally provided a way to communicate to the Vajra's hive-mind and ended hostilities between the Frontier fleet and the Vajra. Currently, the two were hard at work practicing for their performance.

At least, they would, if not for the fact that both singers were way out of it that day.

"Ladies, ladies, come on," Elmo Kridanik pleaded as he tried to motivate the two stars. "The big show's only a week away, and we have so much to prepare for!" Elmo was a Zentradi veteran of Space War I who turned from his warrior heritage to walk the path of a manager for musical talents. As such, he spent most his times Micronized so as to interact more easily with his human clients.

"I'm sorry, Elmo-san, I'm just tired," Ranka Lee sighed as she plopped down on to a bench. Her green hair, a sign of her one-fourth Zentradi ancestry, drooped down to match her fatigue. "I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Same here," Sheryl Nome added, barely stifling a yawn. "You know that thing where you're not really awake, but not really asleep either? It was kind of like that. I had the strangest dream, too, like something was calling to me, but I didn't know who." She turned to Elmo and shot him a wry smile. "So, yeah. That's what's going on."

"Really? Me too," Ranka said. "It _was_ like talking with the Vajra, but different. More individual voices, I think." Ranka's mother was infected by the V-type virus while pregnant, which allowed Ranka to connect and communicate with the Vajra's hive-mind. Sheryl was infected as an adult, which ordinarily was fatal, but Ranka was able to "mutate" the infection so that Sheryl had the same abilities Ranka did. "A lot of them panicky, and some scared, but there was this one voice, this one really deep and rumbling one, that calmed everyone down."

"Hmm, interesting," Elmo noted. "Well, take a break if you need to. I'll go check on the backup dancers."

"OK, thanks," Ranka said as she and Sheryl left to grab some coffee. "Um, Sheryl?"

"Yes?" the older idol replied.

"Don't think I'm weird or anything, but…I really think someone was trying to call to me. I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but I think I caught the last sentence."

"Oh? I couldn't hear anything, just felt a vague swirl of emotions," Sheryl said. "What did they say?"

"Well, it sounded like some kind of farewell or a good luck wish," Ranka said. "Till all are one."


	4. Chapter 4: Lion

A/N: Yay readers! I'm personally not too pleased with how does the crossovers thing; I think it makes far more sense to just allow you to select multiple fandoms for a story, and have a separate category for the crossovers that span a bajillion universes. Anyways, this chapter is still setting up some characters; the next chapter will be back to giant robots fighting as well as more explanation on the Vajra-Cybertronian-Protoculture connection.

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Chapter 4: Lion

"_Fold Quartz – a most marvelous material that allowed the Insecticon race to flourish among the stars. And now, thanks to the research conducted by my team, so will Cybertron reap the benefits of this super-dimensional compound!"_

_~Starscream, Head of Cybertronian Science Division, later Decepticon Air Commander_

Bumblebee and Arcee cruised about the San Francisco region of Island I, looking for any hint of what might have caused the fold waves that were received on Cybertron two years ago. Since landing on this world, both scouts had felt a series of fold waves at more or less regular intervals, although the waves were too weak and faint for Bumblebee to pinpoint alone. Bumblebee had heard of this planet, although he was a little perplexed by what he saw, though; since ancient times, Cybertronian star charts indicated that the planet was the Insecticon homeworld, but now it seemed to be inhabited by another race of small bipedal city-dwelling organics who called themselves "humans."

It was Arcee who managed to locate the source of the fold waves due to her decentralized nature. She was actually constructed out of three separate robots linked to a hive mind, which allowed her to more easily triangulate where the small ripples were coming from. Currently, she was a fleet of pink Ducati 848 motorcycles, a disguise adopted to blend in with her surroundings. Bumblebee was glad Arcee was on the team; while he undoubtedly could have achieved the same result, it would have taken far longer, and the Autobots were running out of time in this war.

"Hey, Arcee," Bumblebee called out as his sensors actively scanned for any sign of Cybertronian life. "Wanna race? If I beat you there, you owe me a kiss!"

"Come on, be serious," Arcee replied. "We don't have much time."

"So if we race, we get there faster, right?" Bumblebee retorted. Back on Cybertron, he had a fondness for speed that led him to select a yellow 2057 Camaro as his disguise form.

"Come on, be serious," Arcee shot back. "Are you not aware of who you're talking to here? The bot's not been made that can match _me_ for speed," she bragged, revving her engines. "Forget the kiss, if you're not eating dust by the time we get there, I'll rotate your tires."

There was a brief period of silence, followed by a jubilant cry as three pink streaks zipped their way across Island 1, closely followed by a yellow streak.

***

For Ensign Megumi Kaminska, the next several days could be best defined by questions upon questions by various investigative personnel. Currently, she paced about the temporary barracks they had assigned her. It was decently furnished and had the façade of a normal living arrangements, but Megumi knew that it was but a step up from "house arrest" – she was not allowed to really go anywhere, for the simple reason that Rear Admiral Halstead, who was in charge of the investigation, had not quite determined whether she had been negligent in her duties.

Megumi shook her head. What else could she have done? She and her fellow crew had done everything they could – indeed, better than could have been expected from the crews of other ships – while blind the whole time. She doubted the much-vaunted SMS could have done better.

More distressing is the mere fact that their enemies had used NUNS mecha, which brought into question how they had come across those mecha. Before she could dwell too much on that, however, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called out, snapping to attention as soon as she saw that it was Rear Admiral Halstead. Next to him was a man dressed in a sharp black suit.

"At ease," Halstead said, Megumi relaxed. "Well, Ensign, I have good news and bad news. Good news is, I'm apparently no longer investigating your case. In fact, you and what few survivors there were are getting off scot-free. On the other hand, you are now under the custody of the gentleman standing beside me."

"Agent John Simmons, Department of Overtechnology Research, Ouranos Division," the man said, holding up a badge. "Come with me."

***

"Well, we're both there," Bumblebee said to Arcee as both Autobots pulled up to what looked like a gathering hall. "Tie?"

"Yeah," Arcee replied. "Tie. Hold on, I'm getting a transmission." She paused for a second, listening intently. "It's from Prime. Sitrep?"

"This is Bumblebee," the yellow scout called back. "We're on-site, but we haven't seen anything yet. I've been trying the universal greeting, but I haven't been getting any results."

***

Backstage at the Tenkumon Concert Hall, Sheryl and Ranka were being prepped for their performance. In the old days, this would have consisted of much fussing over the two idols by makeup and costume personnel, but due to the holographic costume generators that allowed for instantaneous costume changes in real time, this was no longer needed. As a result, the two girls were instead facing each other, warming up their throats and performing breathing exercises to keep them relaxed for their show.

The exercises were going well, when Sheryl and Ranka heard a series of strange syllables.

"You hear that?" Sheryl said, cocking her head to one side in confusion.

"Yeah," Ranka replied. "What was that?"

"I don't know. Does 'Bah-weep-granaaagh-weep-nini-bong' sound like anything to you?"

Ranka shook her head. "Nope. This is getting weird."

"Yes, it is," Sheryl replied. She looked up at a large screen, where an older man was currently giving a speech. "Whatever. The show's about to start," she said, getting up and moving to the wings of the stage. "Good luck!"

***

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I know you're not here to listen to this old man prattle on about the war," President Stephen Ikari said to the packed crowd in front of him. "Heaven knows we've had enough of it when we were coming to this world. So, without further ado, I present to you, the Galactic Nymph, Sheryl Nome! And the Super-dimensional Cinderella, Ranka Lee!"

A series of loud cheers and clapping welcomed the two singers on stage. Sheryl and Ranka smiled as each took a mike.

"Thanks you, thank you," Sheryl said. "It's an honor to be here and performing for the people of New Frontier. Like the President said, you're here for a night of music, but I feel it's important to bring up something else. Now, I know we've all heard about the accident one week ago. Let us have a moment of silence for those lost during the accident, and for those brave servicemen of the Spacy who are currently risking their lives to defend our home and protect our way of life."

The entire audience complied, bowing their heads in recognition. As Ranka did likewise, she looked sideways at Sheryl and noted that she still had much to learn from the older woman, especially where showmanship and public relations were concerned. After the moment of silence was over, Sheryl looked at the audience and smiled, then turned to Ranka and winked, giving her the cue to begin their routine.

"Ladies," Sheryl said, amidst a set of synthesized bells that began chiming the introduction to "Lion."

"Gentlemen," Ranka added.

"Friends," both said together. "LISTEN TO MY SONG!"

***

A set of power guitars roared their tune as the holo-projectors went to work, adorning Sheryl and Ranka in ornate costumes that would take a dozen slaves a dozen days to sew. Fireworks erupted behind them, sending brilliant shades of pink and purple streaking across the sky.

"_The stars are turning round and round at the centre of the galaxy._

_If you sneeze, a butterfly in a forest somewhere will dance."_

"Should we really be doing this? It seems we should be up there in Valkyries," SMS First Lieutenant Vasily Ivanov muttered, firing up his EX-Gear suit. The small flight-capable exoskeleton emitted a low whine as it powered up. EX-Gears were a recent development, meant to enhance a pilot's ability to "sync" with his variable fighter and improve performance. "You know, in case more of those comet things come."

"_The door you guarding cannot be opened by any key._

_It's such an embarrassing story."_

"I think it's all right," Luca Angeloni replied, doing the same. "Major Ozma's up there, along with the Pixies and Diamond Force. They should be more than a match, right, Alto?"

"_Though they often lick one another, lions are strong."_

"Yes." First Lieutenant Alto Saotome nodded, then turned to Vasily, Luca, and two other SMS pilots. "There's the signal. Let's do this."

The five SMS pilots flipped a small switch on their EX-Gears, then blasted off towards the center of the stage, sending clouds of colored smoke behind them. The New Frontier government was giving them paid leave to fly acrobatics for this memorial concert, and by God they were going to make an impression.

As Sheryl sang, she saw and exchanged glances with Alto as he flew by towards her. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she and Ranka began the chorus of the song with increased fervor.

***

"_I want to survive._

_I want to survive._

_I still can't stop wanting to live._

_Guided by the constellations, our eyes met."_

"By Primus," Bumblebee choked out, "Arcee, are you receiving?"

"Yeah," Arcee replied, surprised by the fold waves emanating from the concert hall. "What do you think that is?"

"I–" Bumblebee was about to reply when Optimus Prime cut in.

"Bumblebee, Arcee, come in! Where are these fold waves coming from?"

"I – I don't know, Prime! I'm not finding anything!" Bumblebee replied. "I'm scanning as hard as I can, but I'm not finding anything, Cybertronian or Insecticon!"

"Neither am I, Prime," Arcee added. "Here, I'm linking everything we've picked up with you. Do you or any of the others recognize anything?"

"Receiving transmission," Prime said. "Forwarding. Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, run analysis against this world's FoldWeb."

"Wait, can it be?" Bumblebee's voice was filled with incredulity. "Are the fold waves coming from humans?"

***

"_I want to survive._

_I am at a loss,_

_Gently withering away from this world._

_But until I show you my true self, I will not sleep."_

What few bits of emotion were left in Soundwave's personality circuitry lit up as soon as the fold waves from the concert hit.

"Barricade, come in," Soundwave called out. "Report status."

"Looks like we've been mislead, Director," Barricade called back. "It's fleshlings, though I have no idea how in the Pit fleshlings managed to send out fold waves, much less waves similar to those emitted by Insecticon queens. I'm sending you a file of what I'm seeing as we speak."

"I see," Soundwave replied as he browsed through the file and compared it with his databanks. "Barricade, I have an assignment for you."


	5. Chapter 5: Fire and Steel

A/N: Just to reiterate, the Transformers in this story are a combination of how they appear in the many many continuities, with some of my own additions, which is why they communicate with Fold technology and have pinpoint barriers. While they bear a certain degree of resemblance to G1 and Bayformers, it would probably be most accurate to call them "QuanFormers" or something. Anyways, I think things have been peaceful enough for the past two chapters…let us have some good old metal-on-metal action.

* * *

Chapter 5: Fire and Steel

"_Urayan Circuit-Su is a martial art, the function of which is grappling and fighting on the ground. It is almost an antithesis of orthodox Circuit-Su – it does not ask questions such as 'what is the self,' for such questions fall under the purview of logostrators, but rather 'how may I defeat my opponents'? The answer: take them to the ground, then destroy them limb by limb. Should that proves insufficient, strike at their vital regions until only scrap remains."_

_~ Grandmaster Yoketron, in hand-to-hand seminar to the Iacon Defense Force_

"That was tiring," Ranka Lee sighed as she entered her apartment and collapsed on to her couch. The concert had ended hours earlier, but the necessary publicity stunts afterwards had taken much time, and so it was 4:00 in the morning that she was finally able to leave. "Brother, how did I do?"

"You were amazing," Brera Sterne said. He moved into the kitchen and looked through the fridge, finding something to relax his sister. Meanwhile, back in the living room, Ai-kun scampered up to Ranka and nuzzled her hand.

"Thanks, brother, Ai-kun," Ranka said tiredly, reaching out to scratch Ai-kun's head. Back during the Vajra War, Ai-kun had been brought onboard Frontier as a Vajra egg and hatched into a larva, where it became Ranka's pet. Later, it metamorphosed into a stage-2 Vajra, and stayed with Ranka when all the other Vajra left following the Vajra War's conclusion.

"Here," Brera said, handing Ranka a mug of hot tea. "This should make you feel better."

"Thanks, brother," Ranka replied as she drank the concoction. "Hmm. I really do feel better." She yawned. "Carry me to my room? Please?"

"Of course."

***

Outside Ranka's apartment, a police car slowly pulled up.

"Barricade is in position. Frenzy, deploy."

The police car's door opened, revealing a thin and wiry android. The machine clicked its mandibles, then rapidly sped towards the apartment doors. It was a high-end apartment complex, guarded by keypads and physical locks, but it did little to stop Frenzy. Soon, the little Decepticon was inside.

"According to the floor plan that Soundwave sent, it should be to your right," Barricade called out.

Frenzy clicked an affirmative response as he turned and stepped towards a corridor. There was a quiet "snikt" as claws snapped out of his limbs. He was about to slash the door open, using his speed to quickly abduct his target, when his sensors picked up a source of movement behind him. He turned to meet this new threat and was surprised by the nature of the foe.

_Insecticon?_

Sure enough, a creature with a flat disc-like body, two legs, glowing red optics, and a long leaped at him, small bio-laser beams firing from its antennae. Some were blocked by Frenzy's pinpoint barrier system, but his small stature meant that he really could not take punishment for long. And so Frenzy took the first couple of shots due more to surprise than anything, and quickly rolled out of the way while firing several razor-sharp disks from his chest at the Insecticon. As he got back up, he ran a sensor scan of his opponent. _Yup, Insecticon alright, and a young one too. _

Meanwhile, the creature ducked under Frenzy's disks, then lashed out at Frenzy with its tail. As it did so, it began emitting a series of chirps and squeaks, attempting to alert the others in the apartment. Frenzy growled and fired more razor discs, but the creature ducked under them, leaped forward and closed into melee with him.

***

"Ai-kun? What is it?" Ranka called out groggily as the sound of scuffles reached her ears, only be woken up by a loud crash two angry slashing forms crashed through her bedroom door. She gave a start, saw the two combatants rolling about, and screamed.

Ai-kun paused for a fraction of a second upon sensing distress from its master, and that was all the time Frenzy needed to cut a deep gash into its main body. The small Vajra squealed in pain as it backed up, taking several disks from Frenzy in the process. Frenzy leaped at Ai-kun again, intent on finishing it off, when suddenly a gunshot rang out, knocking him off course. He ran a quick diagnostic check and noted that another shot near the same location would overwhelm his pinpoint barrier system and would start damaging his metallic structure. Hissing in anger, Frenzy prepared to fire more razor discs at this new threat, but a warning and a second shot stopped him in his tracks.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Brera Sterne said in his calm and steely voice, his custom service pistol still smoking in his hand. It was a large and heavy affair, capable of causing significant wrist straing for anyone firing it – that is, anyone who lacked Brera's cybernetic enhancements.

"Brother!" Ranka cried, running towards him. Ai-kun chirped threateningly as it staggered over, bleeding but not down.

"Not one move," Brera ordered, gun trained on the android's center of mass as he remotely dialed to nearest military police station. His foe seemed to understand the threat and stayed put, but Brera could not help but feel some unease. It was almost as if he could feel something off about the way the wiry android swayed from side to side and clicked its mandibles. And then, as if to confirm his suspicions, a large metallic hand shot through the apartment complex, grabbing uncomfortably close at where he and Ranka were. At this instant, the small wiry android renewed its attack, firing several disks at Brera's position.

_This was bad, _Brera thought. "Ranka, come with me. I need to get you to safety," he said. Ranka nodded and complied. As she moved to follow, she saw that Brera's eyes began to glow.

***

"Do ya feel lucky, punk?" Barricade growled as he punched through the apartment complex, probing with his arm for anything that felt fleshy. Small bits of metal impacted against his fingers, and he withdrew his arm and punched into the building again for another go. Still nothing. He was about to do this a third time when his warning systems indicated to him the presence of a strange energy signature.

"What–" Barricade could not dodge the brilliant purple beam of energy that slammed into him. The best he could do was engage the pair of arm-mounted energy shields for which he got his name and take the shot on that, but the shot still knocked him back for several steps. "Heavy Quantum Reaction weaponry?" he growled in surprise as he took stock of his new foe and ran a sensor sweep.

At first glance, it seemed to be some kind of purplish Cybertronian, with design features similar to that of a Thunderwing drone. Comparing it to the data that Soundwave transmitted to him told Barricade that this was what the meatbags called a VF-27 Lucifer, as well as its capabilities and weaponry. However, even though it was designed more elegantly than those that Blitzwing and Lazerbeak had faced, it was still distinctly alien in design and shared the crude transformation process of the other meatbag mecha. And while the new mecha was definitely more technologically advanced than anything else the humans had, Barricade was still certain he could take this bot with no problem.

"Come on, you filthy kitbash, show me the color of you circuitry," Barricade taunted as two rapid-fire rotary cannons slid out from compartments mounted on his arms and blasted away at the interloper. As Barricade fired, he ran towards his opponent, intent on closing in to melee.

***

Back in Ranka's apartment, the battle raged on in a standstill between Brera and Ai-kun on one side, and Frenzy on the other. Ranka, meanwhile, had called the authorities and taken cover behind a rather heavy table. Currently, Ai-kun was doing most of the work, as Brera was occupied with remotely operating his VF-27. Sweat caked his brow; despite the advanced technology of his craft, Brera was having a hard time with the foe outside, especially when he had to multitask between piloting, shooting, and protecting his little sister.

However, there were still two things in Brera's favor. One was his cybernetic nature, which is why he was not dead yet despite having several of Frenzy's discs stuck to him. The other was the fact that Brera was the first to beta test a personalized version of the shipboard fold translator, which allowed him to communicate somewhat with Ai-kun and coordinate strategy.

Ai-kun emitted a series of chirps, causing a surprised expression from Ranka and a nod from Brera, who turned to his sister and extended a hand. "Come on, Ranka. We need to get you to the bunker."

"But what about Ai-kun?" Ranka asked, taking Brera's hand.

"The most important thing right now is to get you safe. That way, Ai-kun and I can fight with no worries, understand?" Brera replied, wincing as his VF-27 took another hit. "Now come on. The sooner you're safe, the sooner I can concentrate on piloting."

***

Barricade engaged his arm shields and braced himself as another Heavy Quantum Reaction shot slammed into him. Pockmarks and dents dotted his body, evidence that the other mecha was giving him a stiff fight. As much Barricade despised meatbags, he had to hand it to them – these humans were worthwhile foes if they had advanced their tech to the point of actually being able to cause damage to a Cybertronian. However, the enemy craft was not fighting at a level anywhere close to what a mecha of that design should be capable of.

_Ah well. Just my lucky day, _Barricade thought he pumped several bursts into the enemy mecha's wings, shearing one of them off and causing it to drop like a rock. _There we go._ He leaped at the downed mecha and tackled it, pinning it to the ground, then pointed one of his arm cannons at the thing's face, preparing to fire. He did not notice the yellow Camaro driving towards him until it transformed in a giant humanoid shape and buried the electromagnetic stingers mounted on its wrists into his back.

The stab hurt, but to Barricade's credit, almost immediately he reacted by twisting his torso servos 180 degrees and using the momentum to swing a shield-powered fist right into his new opponent's face, The yellow robot raised an arm to block, but Barricade's strike plowed right through it and knocked it for a loop. As it fell backwards, however, Barricade felt the human mecha buck its hips while firing its engines, throwing him off while it rolled back and landed in a fighting stance. Meanwhile, the yellow robot changed into its Camaro form, landed on its wheels, turned in a tight circle, and transformed back into a fighting stance.

"Bumblebee," Barricade growled upon getting back up and running a sensor scan of this newcomer while hailing Soundwave for further instructions. While Barricade was pretty sure he could handle both bots on a good day, that surprise attack had hurt him. That was the problem with the transformation technology that was his and Bumblebee's birthright. It came prepackaged with the ability to be unaffected by attempts at electronically establishing IFF while in disguise, making it very easy to infiltrate places and set ambushes. This was fine when fighting other races, but it made civil wars a nightmare for both sides.

Bumblebee made the next move, launching himself at Barricade while firing several shots from laser cannons mounted under his wrists. Barricade, in response, engaged his arm shields, tanked the shots, and then sprawled to prevent himself from being taken down. The two Cybertronians grappled with each other, jockeying for position, until another shot from Brera's Heavy Quantum Reaction Rifle tore through the air. It was pure luck that this was when Barricade stepped forward, slipped his right arm under Bumblebee's left, grabbed Bumblebee's right arm with his own left, then twisted and leaned forward, throwing the Autobot scout down to the ground. Barricade followed him down, landing on top of and perpendicular to Bumblebee's body. Due to the shift in positions, Brera's shot hit both Bumblebee in his back and Barricade in his center torso.

"You'll pay for that!" Barricade yelled as the three pieces of police siren mounted on his back and shoulders shifted and clicked together until they resembled a brightly colored cannon of some sort. The weapon fired its own purplish beam at Brera's craft, forcing it to take cover. At the same time, Barricade slammed a knee into Bumblebee's side, a spark of glee entering his subjective centers as the short-barreled fusion carronade in his knee discharged its load upon hitting, punching through Bumblebee's pinpoint barrier system and causing chips of armor to flake off the Autobot's side. Barricade then repeated the maneuver several more times, using his pinpoint barrier system to power up his knee strikes while the fusion carronade recharged. Bumblebee turned to his side and tried to shrimp away, but Barricade lifted his legs and strode over the enemy Autobot so that he was now sitting on Bumblebee's torso. "A spirited effort, I'm sure, but ultimately futile," Barricade added, raining blows down on Bumblebee's head. "Send me some image files when you meet your manufacturer!"

For an unaugmented Cybertronian, all one could do in Bumblebee's situation was to keep his hands up and protect his head. Fortunately, Bumblebee was far from unaugmented. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, he jammed the electromagnetic stingers mounted on his wrist and into a weak spot on Barricade's lower torso, grinning inwardly as the Decepticon roared in pain. However, things went worse for Bumblebee from there, as Barricade fought through the pain, grabbed Bumblebee's stinger arm, wrapped his leg around it, then fell back, trapping it in between the Decepticon's thighs.

_Slag- _the curse was barely out of Bumblebee's mind when Barricade then bucked his hips up, causing the gears and servos of Bumblebee's elbow joint to snap and break.

"That hurt, Autobot," Barricade snarled as he turned his attentions to the stinger on Bumblebee's wrist. "Perhaps someone should teach you some manners!" A series of saws appeared on one of Barricade's hands, and he was about to apply some amateur Cybertronian maintenance when yet another Heavy Quantum Reaction shot slammed into his center of mass and knocked him off Bumblebee._ That'll teach me not to leave things for dead,_ Barricade thought as he fired back with his back-mounted heavy laser cannon, growling when the human mecha dodged out of the way, when he suddenly picked up a transmission from Soundwave.

"Barricade, Frenzy, I pick up two rebels headed for your position. Retreat."

Barricade growled again in anger. The warrior in him hated retreating from a scrap, but from a big-picture perspective, this is what he liked about being on Soundwave's team. The Director, while harsh and exacting, was never one to kill his subordinates or leave them to die simply for failing. This was not sentiment of mercy, merely realism – the All Spark had been lost for hundreds of thousands of years, and Soundwave knew that each of his warriors was irreplaceable until it could be found. This was also why Soundwave had a low regard for those Decepticon officers who did, considering them barbaric amateurs playing at war who wasted their resources so they could indulge in petty displays of power.

That Barricade would face disciplinary action was certain; that there was nothing Barricade could say or use to rationalize that he did not deserve whatever punishment was given him for failure was also certain. Yet what was more certain was that whatever punishment doled out would leave Barricade humbled, but not without a chance to redeem himself or die trying.

***

Ai-kun breathed heavily as it stared at Frenzy. Both combatants' eyes were filled with savage battle-light as they circled each other, looking for an opening. Ai-kun's antennae had been sheared off, and it was bleeding ichor from many places, but Frenzy was not in much better shape either.

Suddenly, Ai-kun noticed that Frenzy had faltered, had let down his guard for some bizarre reason, and used this opening to tackle Frenzy. No matter how much the Decepticon clawed or slashed at it, Ai-kun would not let up as it gave as good as it got. However, a lucky blow from Frenzy struck home, sending a river of ichor gushing from Ai-kun's chest.

Ai-kun reached out to Ranka's mind and noted that both she and Brera had reached one of the many bunkers, and that Brera seemed to be in some kind of trance, like he was flying a plane but not. Ai-kun's eyes then closed in contentment in the knowledge that its master was safe as it used its last iota of consciousness to seize Frenzy's midsection with its tail and reel the Decepticon in. A second later, there was an explosion that disintegrated both Cybertronian and Vajra.

***

"You got lucky that time, scum," Barricade spat as he got up from taking a hit from both Bumblebee's fusion cannon and Brera's heavy quantum reaction rifle. His arm shields were currently fried and would need charging and maintenance. He fired several last shots at the pair of mecha, then transformed and sped off as Bumblebee and Brera's VF-27 dove for cover. "Rest assured – I will not forget this."


	6. Chapter 6: Skull and Faerie

A/N: First off, apologies for the delay. A lot of real-life things have been going on, but most are settled now.

Second, this story is NOT about "who would win, Macross or Transformers." Based on feats, I can tell you straight up that the answer is Macross. Especially after _Macross Frontier_, wherein NUNS now has the capability to create miniature black holes that can eat up about a third of a planet. Anyways, detailed images of Bayformers can be found on tfwiki dot net. Also, because I'm a big fan of MMA and kung fu flicks, my fighting scenes tend to be written in a "blow by blow" manner. Does this make it confusing/hard to follow, or is it fine?

* * *

Chapter 6: Skull and Faerie

"_A proper Cybertronian warrior ought to be able to nail a headshot at 20.48 kilometers, lay down suppressing fire for his mates, kill the enemy before he can close into melee, dismember an enemy with his bare servos, run recon, infiltrate behind enemy lines, handle ECW, assault a fortified position, hold ground, __fight efficiently, die gallantly.__ Specialization is for drones._"

_~Sixshot, Decepticon warrior, head disciple of Yoketron_

"We're home," SMS First Lieutenant Alto Saotome said as he opened the door to a rather upscale one-story house and entered, carrying Sheryl Nome on his back. He set her down on a leather couch in the living room and then made his way to the kitchen. "Do you want something to drink? Or just sleep?"

"Just get me something with alcohol, Alto dear," she said tiredly. "How was I?"

"Great performance overall," Alto replied as he rummaged through the drinks cabinet. "All that practice the past week really paid off, although you sounded a little strained near the end. Mostly during 'Northern Cross' – you were a little off-key there. Maybe you should have rested a bit more."

"Hmm. Maybe. I'll keep that in mind for the next concert," Sheryl said. "Oh, I liked your corkscrew during 'Sagittarius.' I notice it wasn't part of the regular program?"

"Nope," Alto replied. "Just for you," he added, resulting in an unseen smile from Sheryl. They had first met under a similar circumstance – Alto was performing acrobatics for Sheryl's first concert on board _Frontier_ while it was still travelling the stars. The powers that be had determined that one of Alto's stunts, a rainfall corkscrew, was too dangerous to perform, and had it removed, only for Alto to do it anyway. The stunt almost ended in disaster – and it would have, were it not for fancy flying from Alto and quick recovery from Sheryl turned it into one of the highlights of the night.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Alto said, moving to answer and handing Sheryl her drink on the way. He looked in the eyehole, then opened to door to be greeted by a pretty brunette woman with full lips and prominent cheekbones dressed in biker gear. Parked right next to her (_and on part of the lawn,_ Alto mentally added with some annoyance) was a pink Ducati motorcycle. "Can I help you?" Alto asked.

"Are you Alto Saotome, consort of Sheryl Nome?" The woman asked.

_Consort?_ "Uh, yes," Alto said. "And you are?"

"My name is Arcee. I am an advance scout for the Autobots, and…"

Alto didn't quite catch the last part. He was too busy staring transfixed at the motorcycle, which split into a billion tiny parts and rearranged itself into a vaguely humanoid form. Its rear half became a unicycle-like standing apparatus, while its handlebars and part of its windshield split off to form a right arm and the rest of its windshield plus its front tire became a left arm. Last to form was a slightly…_feminine_ face, comprised many pieces of dashboard. Alto recoiled in surprise, unable to say anything except a single word in his native Japanese.

"_N-nani?_"

***

_The first time always looks weird,_ Arcee thought as she tried to explain the situation and keep things under control.

"What – what are you?" Alto stuttered, as he tried to make sense of this new development.

"Alto? What's going on?" a female voice called out from inside the building. Arcee poked her head out to the side, then turned to Alto.

"Is that Sheryl Nome? I must speak with her. Please let me in. I swear by Primus that I mean you no harm." To Arcee's relief, Alto slowly nodded and stepped into the house, keeping the door open. Before she could wheel herself in, however, Arcee felt a rumbling underground and had a sense of foreboding, one that was proven right when an Insecticon fighter-drone suddenly burst from the ground and tackled her.

A unicycle design was not the most optimal way to balance oneself, so Arcee didn't try. Instead, she rolled with tackle, getting her wheel under the creature, and then kicked upwards in a sacrifice throw. As she did so, she pushed against the ground with her arms, landing with the Insecticon on its back and her on top of it. The pieces of windshield above her right wrist formed into a wickedly curved blade that crackled with energy as she focused her pinpoint barriers on it and drove it into the Insecticon's face. The thing screeched in pain and swung its flagellum at Arcee, who somersaulted off and landed in a ready stance. The Insecticon drone did likewise, hissed, and threw itself at Arcee again, this time succeeding in knocking her over and pinning her against the ground. The creature tried to seize her arms with its limbs, but Arcee immediately transformed her upper body back into vehicle mode, and the Insecticon's claws grabbed nothing but air.

A beam of energy suddenly sailed through the air from about half a kilometer away and impacted against the Insecticon's frame. Curiously, instead of exploding as Insecticons usually did, this one seemingly emitted a pinpoint barrier to protect itself. However, the energy blast shorted out the barrier, and Arcee took advantage of this opportunity to transform back, stab the creature in the gut with her right wrist blade, reform the arm under the blade into a plasma shotgun, and fire, causing the creature to emit a shriek of pain and leap off. The shrieks continued as its exoskeleton hissed and bubbled, melting off to reveal a robotic frame underneath.

"Scorponok," Arcee hissed as she got back up. The tire that formed her left hand reconfigured itself into a bladed shield attached to her wrist by a chain, and she hurled it at the Decepticon. Scorponok jumped and did a barrel roll to avoid the blow, then fired back with small grenade launchers and rapid-fire slug-throwers mounted in its claws. Arcee used her superior agility to dodge out of the way while attacking back, and several seconds passed before another massive beam of energy shot out and slammed into Scorponok's center of mass, shredding and melting armor plate.

Arcee grinned inwardly. She had trained Orthodox Circuit-Su with one of the greatest masters of the art, and was one of the few to attain that coveted skill of "processor-over-matter" that allowed her to split her consciousness between several bodies. One was optimized for close quarters combat, here battling Scorponok; one was designed for sniping and was parked a bit farther away; the last a multipurpose form that was leading Optimus Prime and Jazz over to her current location. She received a transmission from Bumblebee just a nanosecond earlier that he had achieved his objective of recovering Ranka Lee. Now all she had to do was–

_Bang._

Sniper Arcee suddenly could no longer see. Thinking quickly, she immediately transformed and sped away, right as a stream of 37mm slugs tore up where she used to be a second earlier.

"Pick on someone your own size," she heard a deep, rumbling voice growl, as a massive fist slammed into her, knocking her a good ten meters away. The Arcee at the Nome residence immediately ran a scanner sweep and realized what had happened.

"Prime, Jazz, this is Arcee. I am engaging Blackout and Scorponok; requesting assistance with Blackout. Over."

***

"Die," Blackout growled as he swiped at Sniper Arcee with his right arm, the helicopter rotor attached to it spinning furiously. Arcee dodged out of the way, resulting in a nearby tree getting shredded.

Back when the Decepticons first landed on New Frontier, Blackout had been hiding at the fleshlings' "Curtis LeMay" Air Force Base. Blending in had been simple enough – following the destruction of sizeable quantities military equipment, standard procedure was always to check for what materiel one had left and what could be salvaged, not for whether one ended up with extra once all things are accounted for. Had the human officer in charge of clean-up efforts lacked common sense, he would have noticed that he had one extra Super Comanchero attack helicopter. But, like most military personnel, he was grateful that he did not lose more materiel than he could have and left it at that.

Getting out of the base was a bit trickier, but fortunately for Blackout, it had been determined prior to his arrival that having a couple of attack choppers fly security around the Tenkumon Concert Hall would be a good idea. After the concert, Soundwave gave him the task of pursuing Sheryl Nome. After faking a crash, setting off a disruptor bomb, and deploying Scorponok to pursue, Blackout then scanned a nearby civilian transport helicopter and flew to link up with his minion – which brought him to where he was at this instant.

"What's the matter, not used to playing rough?" Blackout laughed as the Arcee unit frantically dodged every which way, attempting to avoid the hail of fire he was throwing at her. "I had expected more of a disciple of Yoketron!" At that moment, however, several bursts of laser fire lit up the area around him. A loudspeaker greeted both him and Arcee.

"Unidentified mecha, lower your weapons and power down. Have your pilots step out or we will kill you."

***

As soon as shots started flying, Alto immediately ran back into the house, informed Sheryl that there was a robot fighting a Vajra fighter-drone outside, and escorted her to the garage, where they quickly drove off to the nearest bunker. During that time, Alto had dialed the local military police department, which immediately dispatched a pair of Zentradi MPs backed up by two newly developed civilian mecha, dubbed "Patloids" – a condensed abbreviation for "Patrol Destroid." They had happened upon Blackout and Arcee, and thought that this was the mecha firefight they were meant to stop.

They never had a chance, as concentrated ion bolts from Blackout's two shoulder-mounted particle projection cannons took out one of the Patloids. Several bursts from the dual 37mm autocannons in his left arm left a Zentradi MP with a torso that resembled chunky salsa, and the other Patloid was blasted to pieces by a combination of the plasma flamer mounted below Blackout's right wrist and the 213mm rocket-propelled-grenade launcher slung under his autocannons. The remaining MP managed to get off a couple shots from his rifle before Blackout unsheathed his rotor weapon, punched it through the giant's chest, and _blended_.

"Pah," Blackout spat. "The spark is willing, but the alloy is weak." He looked around and saw that Sniper Arcee had sped off to join CQC Arcee. Blackout growled in anger as he fired off several bursts of chaingun fire at the retreating forms, then transformed in pursuit, cursing the circumstances that forced him to abandon his military alt mode for one that had not a single weapon.

"Blackout, be advised. The fleshlings are moving out," Soundwave reminded him. "Do not let them escape. Barricade will aid you."

"Yes, Director," Blackout replied, sending a set of new directives to Scorponok as he flew in to engage the two Arcees.

***

It was quite a shitty night for Alto Saotome. He and Sheryl lived in close proximity to a blast shelter, but Scorponok had gotten there first, blocking the doorway with destroyed debris and forcing them to get back to the car and drive to the next nearest one. Scorponok chased them all the way, mostly traveling underground but popping up occasionally to get a visual on his quarry. His pathfinding was aided by official maps uploaded into his processors by Soundwave, who was also calculating Alto and Sheryl's most likely course of action and giving instructions to Scorponok accordingly. This went on for several minutes until Alto came across a silver sports car and another pink motorcycle that took mecha form and engaged Scorponok.

"What the hell was that?" Sheryl asked as Alto swerved to miss the tangle of robots. She suddenly winced and put her hands to her ears.

"What's wrong?" Alto asked.

"I don't know," Sheryl replied, annoyance in her voice due to a combination of fatigue and pain. "It's just like those headaches I've been having these past couple of days. All the doc says is that it's something with the V-type infection. If he doesn't even know what it is, how the hell should I?"

Alto was about to reply, but chunks of mecha suddenly landed right in front of him. The screech of rubber on cement echoed as Alto hit the brakes, followed by the crunch of car on alien robot as Alto hit was appeared to be one of Scorponok's claws and a section of its tail, the ends still red-hot from where they had been blown off the body. Fortunately, Sheryl's car was designed with safety features as befitting her superstar status, and Alto's defensive driving reflexes were honed by his fighter pilot training, so neither driver nor passenger were too shaken.

"You all right?" Sheryl asked as she helped Alto out of his side of the car.

"Yeah," Alto replied. He looked around, saw a cop car driving towards them, flagged it down, made it very clear to the mustachioed officer inside that he and Sheryl needed to be taken to the nearest shelter, and was relieved when the officer nodded and popped the backdoor open.

"Come in," the officer said, in a somewhat stiff voice. English must not have been his first language.

"Thank you, officer."

***

"Baby, why do you make me have to hurt you?"

Two azure bolts of concentrated ions streaked though the sky, and CQC Arcee barely had time to move out of the way as one scorched the surface of her shoulder. Sniper Arcee fired back with her own extended range heavy quantum reflex rifle, rocking Blackout as the shot impacted squarely with his center torso.

"That's a question you should ask yourself, Blackout," Sniper Arcee retorted as she and CQC Arcee ducked and weaved between blasts, quickly closing in to melee while returning fire.

"You expected more from a disciple of Yoketron," CQC Arcee quipped, ducking under a swing from Blackout's rotor weapon. "Ask, and you shall receive." The tire-chain-whip shot from her left arm, wrapping beautifully around the main helicopter rotor on Blackout's back, then retracting to pull CQC Arcee up. She used the momentum to kick Blackout in the face, somersaulted over a burst of autocannon fire, and then drove the energy blade on her right arm into Blackout's shoulder, firing the plasma shotgun mounted on the same arm as she did so. The Decepticon soldier roared in pain and tried to bring his weapons to bear, but was unable to do so for three reasons. One was that Arcee was too nimble for his weapons to target without the risk of hitting himself. Two was that the shoulder she'd damaged was the one connected the arm with the 37mm autocannons, his lightest weapons. The third was that while CQC Arcee was keeping him occupied, Sniper Arcee was taking continuous potshots at him, the most recent of which overwhelmed his pinpoint barrier system, took out one of his PPCs and nearly knocked him over.

Blackout tried to return fire with his remaining PPC, but the Arcee unit on his back knocked his shot off course at the last second. He tried grabbing CQC Arcee again. No such luck, as she managed to swing down and slice at his side chestplate while placing plasma shots into his torso. The third time, however, was the charm; with a single stroke of his rotor weapon, Blackout cut the chain linking him and CQC Arcee clean off while she was in mid-swing. As CQC Arcee fell, Blackout sent a PPC bolt in her direction, baring his teeth in satisfaction as the shot impacted squarely with her center torso, melting through armor, scrambling sensors, and knocking her several meters away.

While Blackout was busy with CQC Arcee, however, Sniper Arcee had transformed and sped towards him, going so fast that Blackout barely had time to react when she turned to the side and hit the brakes, her momentum allowing her to slide under Blackout's body and place a shot right between his legs. As Blackout reeled from the blast, his scanner suddenly became aware of another Cybertronian. Judging by the size and profile –

_Slag._

The thought barely entered Blackout's mind when a concentrated beam of energy smashed into his chest, knocking him back. He had taken but one step to the side in an attempt to dodge when another one burned a deep hole in his right shoulder, followed by another shot that would have taken off his head had he not rolled with it, crashing to the ground with a great _thud_.

Blackout immediately dropped a disruptor bomb, transformed, and took off at top speed, pushing his engines to their limit as shots zipped by all around him, some missing, others finding their mark. He did not need Soundwave's order to know that retreat was the optimal choice, nor did he heed the taunt of "Are you a Decepticon or a Deceptican't?" Blackout had been on the receiving end of the weapon once before and knew who it belonged to. That was an ion blaster, a custom-crafted weapon wielded by only one Autobot, one that Blackout had no intention of tangling with even on a good day.

Blackout liked having a face.


	7. Chapter 7: Babel

A/N: Author's Notes are now at the bottom.

* * *

Chapter 7: Babel

_"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."_  
"_Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party."__  
~Mao Zedong, human revolutionary, political theorist, and communist leader (Chinese)_

"_The democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears."  
~ Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein, human author and Annapolis graduate (American)_

"Receiving transmission from _Battle Frontier_," NUNS First Lieutenant Cathy Glass announced from her position on the _SMS Quarter_'s bridge. The daughter of the late President Howard Glass, Cathy had served as NUNS's liaison with SMS ever since the Vajra War. That she was going out with Major Ozma Lee, leader of SMS's Skull Squadron, also had something to do with her insistence on staying in her post.

"Open hailing frequencies," Captain Jeffery Wilder of the _SMS Quarter_ replied, sitting up as the face of Admiral Perry replaced the various charts, graphs, and tables on his heads-up display. "Good day, Admiral. What new developments have occurred?"

"Good day, Captain," Perry replied. "First Contact with another alien race. President Ikari is linked as well. Switching to live feed from your planetside base."

"Very well," Wilder said as the HUD split into four parts, three small screens that held the faces of Perry, Ikari, and Brera Sterne and one that, confusingly enough, only showed, several cars and motorcycles huddled together. Things started making more sense as the vehicles transformed into robots.

As captain, it was Wilder's job to keep calm in the face of everything. Yet even he was a little awed by the various transformations happening before his eyes. They hearkened back to childhood memories, to the sense of wonder and awe he had felt upon seeing a Valkyrie transform for the first time. But this wasn't just a mecha transformation.

"This is art!" First Officer Bobby Margot exclaimed, his eyes on the large red truck that folded into itself over and over, each fold forming new connections and new parts until a humanoid form emerged, an extremely ornate form that caused Wilder and Perry to briefly wonder how much damage it would take to break something.

Once all the vehicles were finished transforming, the truck introduced itself.

"Greetings. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron. I bring a message, a warning of danger to your world. Out story is a long one, but I will try to condense it as much as I can. Will you hear it?"

"Proceed," said the talking head of President Ikari. Prime nodded and tapped his forehead, causing an incredibly lifelike 3D display to emit from his eyes as he narrated.

***

"_Before time began, there was…the Allspark. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. That is how our race was born."_

A world made not of earth or liquid or gas but steel. At its center, a massive cubical construct, covered in arcane runes, pulsating with energy. Thirteen thin, wiry humanoid frames, each alike, but also different.

"_Over millennia, we flourished and established a civilization on our homeworld of Cybertron. With the passing of eons, we spread among the stars. We were a peaceful people and wished live in harmony among the universe's races. But there were those who did not share our wish."_

A jet-black aerial vehicle descended upon an unknown world, bracing itself with legs formed out of engines and tailfins, gazing in wonder at its unfamiliar surroundings as the plane's nose slid back to reveal a face. A gaggle of tall, dinosauroid aliens covered in blades climbed into hiding places in massive trees, save for one with the temerity to make first contact. Glittering metal spires and towers rose from the ground, reaching like so many aspiring hands towards space. Out of nowhere, a massive disk floated ominously overhead and sent a hellish beam raining downwards from its center, obliterating everything in its path, throwing up clouds of debris and mecha parts. Waves of three-legged walkers landed from the disk, their energy beams scything through those few who remained.

"_To defend ourselves, we built armies – masses of drones, supported by powerful Guardian Robots. But they were not enough, and so we created the Decepticons - a volunteer force of Cybertronians who would use our transformation abilities in combat."_

Waves of robots, their bodies intricate and advanced, their eyes lacking the brilliant spark of their cousins, emerged from factories surrounding the Cube. Gigantic machines covered in weaponry stood tall in their midst like lords of war. At the forefront, a group of Cybertronians – proper Cybertronians – formed up, led by one of regal yet sinister bearing, a massive cannon attached to one of his arms. All around him, a mechanical city cheered.

"_Then came the day we were betrayed. Megatron, the general of our armies, wanted to install himself as leader of Cybertron, and so began the Great War – a war that consumed our worlds until they were filled with nothing but savagery and death. All who resisted him were destroyed, until we made a terrible sacrifice."_

Burning. Everything was burning. Inhabitants of the cheering city ran through ruined blocks as volleys of fire flashed all around them. Once-great lecture halls, public parks, sport arenas, centers of art and culture, and countless other constructs reduced to rubble. Drone and Cytertronian parts littered the ground. Guns roared. Blades hummed. Missiles screamed. The ground cracked, and lava poured forth as the planet itself wept for its children. A single capsule escaped from Cybertron, leaving an empty cubical socket, dying factories, and the parts of countless Cybertronians in its wake. A single robot staggered about the landscape, until a flying spear impaled its midsection. The regal and sinister one roared its anger to the heavens.

"_We knew Megatron was after the Allspark, and would use it to create an army with which to rule the galaxy. In desperation, we shot the Allspark into the far reaches of space, far from Megatron's grasp. From that day on, both sides' goal turned from annihilation to recovering the cube. We scattered across the galaxy, searching every star, every world, hoping to find it and rebuild our home – or, in Megatron's case, settle the conflict once and for all. No progress had been made in five hundred thousand years – until now."_

A great exodus. A massive space battle. Two human females, glowing pink and green. Millions of nodes extending from them to millions of Insecticons and human fighters, each connection pulsating with energy to the beat of "Lion."

"_Your ability to tap into the Insecticon FoldWeb has shown Megatron a way by which the Allspark may be found. It is imperative that this does not happen. Our war has come to your world. Will you help us?"_

***

All who were connected by the video link murmured and discussed amongst themselves, and Optimus's Autobots found themselves answering many questions from the humans.

"Here's what I don't get," Ikari said, scratching his head. "If you Autobots controlled this – this Allspark, why didn't you just raise an army with that and fight the Decepticons with it?"

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, President," Prime said, his optics narrowing. "We made a mistake in doing so with the Decepticons. How could we in good conscience repeat that mistake?"

"Also, any new soldiers we make were liable to go over to Megatron's side. He can offer them infinitely more outlets for their abilities than we could," Ironhide added. "It may benefit us for a while, but in the long run it harms more than it helps."

"You mentioned that you were looking for…for us 'little queens'. Where's Sheryl?" Ranka asked. She was concerned for the older woman, especially given the abduction attempt that she found herself the subject of. Arcee, Ironhide, and Jazz looked down.

"The Decepticons have her," Arcee said, a little shamefully. "I'm sorry. I was unable to fight off Blackout and Scorponok both–"

An emotionless metallic voice cut in as an icon bearing the Decepticon insignia joined the icons on the HUD screen.

"Greetings, representatives of the New United Nations Spacy. I am Soundwave, Intelligence Director of the Decepticon Empire," the voice said. "Sheryl Nome and her consort Alto Saotome are safe under the protection of my subordinate."

Ikari, Perry, and Wilder kept their composure, even as all around them technicians and communications personnel descended into a buzz of activity, working frantically to find out how someone could have eavesdropped on and inserted themselves into a conversation guarded by NUNS's most stringent security and encryption protocols without anyone noticing. If Soundwave could do that, then he could also insert viruses and inflict general all-round nastiness upon NUNS's systems should a shooting war start.

"Well, that's nice to know, Director Soundwave," Ikari said. "I suppose you're here to tell us about your side of things?"

"Correct," Soundwave replied. "It would only be logical that one should choose sides only after hearing the stories of both."

"True," Ikari said, nodding. "Alright, shoot."

***

The beat-up police car wasn't a normal police car. Alto and Sheryl had come to that conclusion since it ignored their protests and drove away from the nearest shelter and into the parking garage of one of the more popular nightclubs in the area. The doors remained closed and locked when they tried to get out. That the driver did not respond to Sheryl's quip about the lack of donut shops nearby confirmed the suspicion that there was more than meets the eye with this cop.

"I think we can drop the pretense," Sheryl said, snuggling up next to Alto. "Who are you, and what do you want?" Given the strange events the two had seen, neither were all that surprised when the car's dashboard and parts of its radio mashed together to form a face.

"I am Barricade," it said. "My race is dying, and we need your help. Will you hear my tale?"

Sheryl shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

"Not like we have a choice in the matter," Alto added.

"Very well," Barricade said.

***

Memories. Alto and Sheryl soon realized that they were seeing a pre-recorded set of memories, broadcast for them on a 3D display.

"_I and others like myself come from the planet Cybertron. It is far from here, and not recorded in any of your star charts. Our story begins with the Cube – an artifact about which we know very little, only that it birthed our race. Our civilization spanned the galaxy, but as we spread, we attracted much in the way of unwanted attention. Some wanted our technology. Others found us an affront to their beliefs. All in all, we found that in the grim darkness of this galaxy, there was only war."_

Tusked greenskins that waved crude guns and axes and charged with ramshackle armor. Self-mutilating madmen in ships adorned with blood and body parts raided world after world. Howling blue-eyed creatures with skin like lava that attacked everything within sight. Aliens like these and stranger descended upon newly born metal worlds, raiding, looting, and destroying.

"_Our culture had venerated peace, and we were loathe to partake in violence ourselves. And so we built armies of drones for grunt work and Guardian robots for heavy firepower. But drones lacked the Spark of true sentience, and Guardians, while powerful, were tactically inflexible. Thus, it fell on we Decepticons – Cybertronians who volunteered to pick up the soldier's burden – to defend our homes. It was a thankless task, but someone had to do it."_

A thousand worlds. A thousand campaigns. A thousand enemies. Masses of identical drones formed ranks and advanced upon their foes, indifferent to the large numbers of their brethren blasted apart by return fire. Gigantic war machines shook the ground as they walked forward and unleashed supernovas, until finally succumbing to waves of repeated assaults by smaller, quicker, and more numerous foes. Leading them was a Cybertronian of regal yet sinister bearing, scarred with battle, standing at the front lines and barking out orders, never flinching even as missiles and shells and beams exploded all around him, moving from his position only to push a comrade out of the way of incoming fire or to get into a better firing position.

"_Those who return never truly come home. The very bots we risked Spark and servo to save regarded us with fear, and our civilian leaders were too old, too dead-set in their ways to accept us as part of society. They, too, regarded us with fear and suspicion, afraid that as more and more of us were needed fill our ranks, we would rise against them. They enacted laws, curtailing our freedoms and limiting our interactions with our fellow Cybertronians for fear we would corrupt them with our warlike ways."_

Furtive glances. Thinning crowds. Hushed whispers. A mother pulling her child away from the being that was like them, yet not. Adults trying unsuccessfully to hide their stares at not-yet-repaired parts. Ornately decorated robots, clearly upper-class and flanked by similarly decorated warriors, gathered in secret and pondered about the "Decepticon Problem." Veterans increasingly cut-off and isolated from mainstream society, returning home only to find that nothing was the same.

"_Finally, some of us couldn't take it any more. To be used like tools, discarded like scrap metal once we outlived our usefulness, and called back once they needed us again – we didn't deserve this. Then, the Seeker Rebellion started, and we were called upon to point our blades and guns to our own battle-brothers."_

A titanic struggle between two sides who knew exactly what the other was capable of, how they would fight, how they would react. The regal one and the rebel leader – a bright red robot that rapidly swapped between his humanoid and fighter craft forms – engaged each other in single combat as thousands of soldiers clashed in a gnarled mess of limbs and weapons, moving with a terrible efficiency borne from millennia of war. An army that had faced down every single one of the countless horrors the galaxy threw at them now sought to destroy itself.

"_Fortunately, we realized our foolishness in time. The problem lay not within us, but within those who would be our masters but proved themselves unfit as such. And so we followed our glorious leader Megatron and took our destiny in our own hands. We captured factories, and space bridges, and munitions depots. We adapted the weapons of our former enemies so that we may always outmaneuver our foes. We suffered some setbacks over the years, but soon we were poised to take control of Cybertron and ensure that such a raw deal for those who made the greatest sacrifice never happens again. And then, when victory was in our grasp, our enemies committed the greatest crime of all."_

"What crime?" Sheryl asked. No image accompanied this last part.

"Genocide," Barricade replied. "Genocide, inflicted on our own species. They held the Allspark – that Cube which is the only means by which we Cybertronians propagate – and they shot it into space rather than let us have it. Rather than to surrender graciously and admit their mistake – and I see by the expression on your consort's face that he agrees this was a mistake – they condemned our people to slow death."

Alto humphed. "So what do you want us to do?" This time, an image appeared, one that both Alto and Sheryl recognized as the final battle of the Vajra War.

"We have known of the Insecticons – that which you call the Vajra – and their living FoldWeb," Barricade said. "We also know that your people have found a unique way of tapping into that FoldWeb. Half a million years of war has thinned our numbers, Sheryl Nome, and we seek your help. If every single Cybertronian stopped fighting and searched, we may still not find the Cube. But with a hive fleet of Insecticons, or several…why, we could repopulate our home. That, my friends, is all I ask of you. Will you help us?"

***

"Questions?" Soundwave asked.

"What a way to make yourselves out to be freedom fighters," Ironhide humphed. "Why don't you play the vid of what happened after you conquered Iacon, huh? Bet the humans'd love to hear you justify that. Oh, right, you don't have to, because I was there." He turned to address the NUNS and SMS personnel gathered. "Iacon was one of our largest cities and the first target of Megatron's rebellion. I was part of the Decepticon Army at that time – 'was' because I left after that. I signed on to defend my people from outside aggression, not to turn my cannons on them or be killed myself." He turned to the HUD screen where Soundwave's icon was displayed. "Play the orders we were given, Soundwave," Ironhide growled. "Do it!"

Soundwave said nothing. A second later, a different voice appeared over the comm. "The Iaconites have had a chance to surrender this city and leave with their lives. They chose not to take it. Now they will suffer the consequences," announced the recorded voice of Megatron. "They who would not take on the burden of violence or fear or sacrifice themselves gladly shunted that burden to us. Let them know violence. Let them feel fear. Let them understand sacrifice. Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy. Decepticons, transform and rise up!"

"We did everything required of us as a civilized race," Soundwave said, after it was played. "We approached their walls. We announced our intent to capture the city and the factories, communications arrays, mineral refineries, and all other infrastructure within it. We warned that they had until our siege lines were completed to surrender, and that we would treat the city we would any other target if they refused our offer. The Decepticon Army did nothing forbidden by our Codex Bellum. Assertions otherwise is mere historical revisionism."

This charge brought a chorus of angry shouts from the Autobots.

"Did nothing my left ball bearing," Ironhide spat, earning him a disapproving look from Optimus. "What about the first line, when we swore our duty to Cybertron and its people?"

"It is you who are guilty of historical revisionism," Ratchet shot back. "Why, I–"

"Whoa there, hold the flame war," President Ikari said, cutting in. "Look, guys, right now we don't have enough information to decide which of you is in the right. But even if we did, the way our government works is that we can't decide what to do right off the bat. We're a democracy, and so if you want our help, then it would be much easier if you'd each just draft up a proposal, and I'll use the First Contact clause to call up a meeting of Congress. Then we'll review your case and make a decision from there. Monica here can send you a printout of the Congressional Petition template, if you like."

***

After receiving the Word file, Soundwave allowed himself to feel a small measure of satisfaction as he reviewed the way the meeting had gone. The humans' reactions turned out more or less as he expected they would, which was good, as it meant that his logic algorithms were accurate, at least at the moment. Suddenly, he sensed that Megatron was trying to raise him.

"Soundwave, my loyal war hound," Megatron said, his voice that same mix of gruff and cordial Soundwave had known since he first took over the post of Intelligence Director. "Sitrep?"

"Lord Megatron, I am working on convincing the humans," Soundwave replied. "However, the projected probabilistic need for additional reinforcements has increased by 18 percent."

"I see. Most of our main forces are still tied down hunting for Ultra Magnus. However, Tidal Wave reports that he was successful in pacifying the resistance in the Orbsah system. Starscream's team has also finished their sweep of the Rabotev system."

"Starscream? But – is he the best candidate for this type of operation?"

"You requested 'as many bots as can be spared,' if I recall correctly," Megatron replied. "And Starscream's Seekers are force multipliers of the highest magnitude. Yes, Starscream is a wild card, and his maverick tendencies are widely known. However, I have explicitly made it known to him that operational authority is in your hands, and you will also have Tidal Wave at your beck and call. Between that, not even Starscream would dare chance too much. Hold the line, Soundwave, until I can arrive with the main army."

"As you command."

* * *

**A/N:** Right, so, this chapter is gonna be very much "love it or hate it." I had a hard time with the monologues, and so decided to try experimenting with a more minimal style, where hopefully you will be able to fill in images that it would take way too long for me to try to explain. If I failed at that…I'm sorry. Also, apologies in that I've made you wait so long for a chapter that's just people talking. A large part of the delay is due to real life taking precedence over fanfiction, as well as me having to rewrite parts of this because the original versions stories tend to suck when the author uses them to push his own political views.

BTW, anyone who likes Naruto should read S'TarKan's fic "Team 8."


	8. Chapter 8: Tired of Your JibberJabber

Chapter 8: Tired of Your Jibber-Jabber

"…_The sharing of Cybertronian technology is to be forbidden by any and all Cybertronians...Praetorians and Decepticons shall be authorized to use force up to Restriction State 0 in the apprehension of known violators…"_

_~Excerpt from the Tyrest Accords_

"One-two, is this thing on?" President Stephen Ikari said, preparing to deliver the final decision to the two Cybertronian leaders.

"I hear you," Soundwave and Prime both replied.

"Excellent," Ikari said, putting on his game face. "Gentlemen, as President, it is my duty to negotiate treaties with you folks. Now, we've reviewed your cases, and here's how we feel about your terms.

Overall, we have determined that there exists no duty for NUNS to intervene in the civil war of a third party. Thus, we will not be taking sides with either of you, nor will we be aiding your search for this AllSpark, but will be maintaining neutrality in this matter. However, owing to NUNS's commitment to its core values, most relevantly the principles of an unalienable right to liberty and freedom of conscience, we have decided to accept those wishing to claim political asylum in NUNS-held space. We feel this is a suitable compromise between both your claims; what say you?"

"Thank you for your time, President Ikari," Prime began. "This decision is not optimal to our situation, but it is fair from your perspective. The Autobots will honor this."

"Very well," Ikari said. "Soundwave?"

"These terms are not acceptable," Soundwave replied. "The act of sheltering the Autobots will be interpreted as a hostile action–"

"Now hold your horses. We are not sheltering the Autobots," Ikari interrupted, making sure to put a certain amount of force in his voice and doing his utmost to channel his inner Churchill. "We are sheltering anyone and everyone wanting out of your civil war, Decepticons included. Look, you wanted the Autobots out of your hair, and you got that. The Autobots wanted a place where they could be left alone, they got that. That's a win-win situation; I don't see what the deal is."

Through the viewscreen, Ikari could only detect the tiniest iota of irritation from Soundwave, but detect it he did, brining a slight smile to his lips. The first negotiations between two civilizations were the most important, for those set the tone of subsequent interactions between the two parties. _Let them walk over you the first time, and they'll own you forevermore; strength is the only true guarantor of equality._

"I must confer with Megatron and the rest of the Decepticon council," Soundwave replied. "As I am but one member of the Decepticon High Command, I lack the authority to decide foreign policy on my own volition. If you will excuse me, President Ikari?"

"You delay, Director," Prime replied, his eyes narrowing. "Do not think your plans are so opaque. Who are you waiting for, Soundwave? Obsidian? Strika? Starscream?"

"I know not of what you speak, Prime," Soundwave answered. "Though you know as well as I do that my reply is factual." He turned to address the TV screen. "President Ikari, due to scheduling issues, as well as fluctuations in Fold communications, it may take up to several days for a reply. I trust we will be meeting more until then?"

"Sure," Ikari said. "The verdict's still out on the Allspark hunt, but we'll keep you posted."

* * *

A calm void filled Soundwave's inner Spark as he meditated, becoming one with all electronic activity around him, sensing the hum of every processor, the whine of every engine, the buzz of every data packet, and even at times the vibration of every electron traveling through its mediums. It was an ancient and closely-guarded technique, once available only to the Praetorians, the students of Grandmaster Yoketron who guarded Cybertron's internal stability while the Decepticons were tasked with handling external threats. Then came the day several of Yoketron's star pupils deemed Cybertron's treatment of the Decepticons contrary to the honor code that they were taught to uphold and defected, and the rest was history. For other Cybertronians, the practice was but a way to optimize their processes. For Soundwave, it provided a boost to his ability to glean data from every source in the area.

Thus it was that Soundwave picked up the presence of the Ouranos Division agent before he even arrived – the cell phone and its as-of-yet unused Bluetooth set, the brand new iSlug that was supposed to have been released a month later, the office-issued laptop that contained an oddly large amount of video documentaries regarding human reproduction stored in a hidden folder, they all alerted him to an approaching being. And so Soundwave cut the agent off before he began to make his introduction.

"Good day, Agent Simmons," Soundwave said, digging into the circuitry of the RFID chip embedded into the man's bicep and cross-referencing the data with what information he could pull off the government servers. His visual sensors further picked up the microscopic message imprinted on the copy of the Agent's badge, too small for the Frontier government cameras to pick up, but just the right size for conveying a hidden message to an advanced robotic race.

_My department has much influence within the government. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Just remember you're not the only backscratchers around._

"I suppose you are here to make a request of me?"

To his credit, Simmons kept his cool at the demonstration of his own systems' insecurity, though from what Soundwave had gathered based on his observations of others, the NUNS government had more or less accepted as a fact of life that they flat-out would not be able to keep him out of their systems.

"A request? No sir, just to talk."

* * *

"This is such a steaming load of slag," Ironhide growled for the umpteenth time as he paced around the warehouse that formed the Cybertronians' temporary quarters. Two such facilities were set up, one Autobot, one Decepticon, placed right next to each other. Astrotrain was the sole exception; he was simply too big to fit into any human facility, and so he was stored at an undamaged quarter of the New Gallia Zentradi Base. Even though either side could easily break through the walls and start a firefight, whoever shot first could be determined to be the aggressor of the conflict – an implication that Optimus pointed out to Ironhide and Soundwave pointed out to Bonecrusher on their respective sides of the barrier. To enforce this, both Skull Squadron and Diamond Force had been deployed outside as guards, backed up by a full company of mixed Zentradi mecha and infantry.

"Chillax, bro," Jazz replied. "Ain't nothin' you can do. Might as well enjoy yo' surroundings, tap that FoldNet – these humans make some pretty phat beats."

Ironhide rolled his optics. "Prime, make him stop, please? He's been talking like that ever since he discovered that one channel, with the dark-skinned humans."

"Calm down, the both of you," Prime replied, a little annoyed as well. He was about to say more when his sensors received a private transmission form the neighboring room.

"Enjoying your time with the locals, Optimus?"

"Immensely. You, Soundwave?"

"Same. I presume you have met the ones from their Ouranos Department," Soundwave replied. "I would ask you your answer, but seeing as you are Optimus and not Sentinel, the result is fairly obvious." There was a pause. "The lengths to which these humans would go to obtain their ends is quite distressing," Soundwave continued. "I hope you know what you are doing, Optimus Prime. While the recovery of the Allspark is vital, I cannot trust these humans' intentions should they find it first. Soundwave out."

"Cheeky fellow, wasn't he?" Ratchet commented. "Though I'm afraid I share his concerns about what happens if the humans find the Allspark and desire to use it for ill. What will we do then?"

"Maybe, but as long as we can point them at the Decepticons it'll all be good, right?" Ironhide retorted. "Besides, they still need us to translate it all for them. They don't have the science to understand the science behind it – heck, not even we do for all of it. We just have to give them the stuff for drones and put a kill switch in there, if they turn into a threat."

"Dayum, bro, that's cold," Jazz commented. "I gotta agree, hooking the humans up with our tech don't jive with me. Too many things what might go wrong, know what I'm sayin?"

"It's not quite fair to judge them based on those Ouranos guys, though," Bumblebee said. "My experiences so far indicate that the vast majority of humans desire nothing more than peace, while accepting that it sometimes must be protected by gun and blade." He looked at Prime. "Beachcomber would have liked it here."

* * *

"So, whose story do you think is more legit?" Alto asked from the cockpit of his VF-25 upon seeing that everyone was in the chat room. One of the perks of working for a private military contractor as opposed to actual military was that your boss was more lenient about what "side tasks" you could do on the job.

"To be honest, after swapping stories, the Autobots' side does seem to make more sense," Sheryl replied. "I mean, Barricade's got a pretty bad sob story, he really does – but I think I'd rather trust the side that didn't try to kidnap us."

"And his cronies killed Ai-kun," Ranka interjected.

"Or kill our pets," Sheryl added. "Although, at times, I definitely get the feeling that there is definitely more to the Decepticons than the Autobots seem to be letting on."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Brera asked.

"Well, from when Barricade showed me what he was all about, I got this feeling – probably on account of that bacteria in my intestines – that he really, truly believes in what he was telling me."

"Well, no offense, but Ranka had the same feeling about Bumblebee. I as well," Brera replied.

"It wasn't anything specific, mind you; call it a hunch. A woman's alien-bacteria-assisted intuition, if you will," Sheryl said, shrugging. "Besides, it's not like the two sides' stories are mutually exclusive. If we accept both as true, it just means that the difference is whether you think the Decepticons overreacted to how their society treated them."

"Yeah, that's right, I suppose," Alto said. "So…I guess you're ready for the Senate hearing tomorrow?"

"Of course. I am Sheryl Nome, after all; I'm ready for anything."

* * *

Sometimes, when you had a random data set and just started analyzing the data available but needed to make a snap decision, the first couple million rows suggested one pattern, when the true pattern required using the next several million.

Soundwave was greatly regretting attacking those NUNS ships. Turns out that during the initial attack, the gaps between Blackout's flashbang detonations were sufficient for a small amount of data to be captured by the NUNS ships, and it just so happened that one Ensign Megumi Kaminska had a copy with her. It also just so happened that she was picked up by the Ouranos Division and had helped them identify that the Decepticon landing was in fact part of a deliberate attack. Fortunately for Soundwave, he was able to spin a slightly convincing story of pre-emptive self-defense, aided primarily Prime being too honorable to deny the fact that the various Autobot militant cells had taken within the past hundred thousand years to lure Decepticon armies into third party military fleets in hopes of "killing a man with a borrowed knife," to borrow a term from a human eBook on strategy he had read.

Good reason or not, that was still sufficient to turn public opinion against him. Which meant it was another fortunate thing for Soundwave that the persistence of warfare had prevented the NUNS government from being as liberally democratic as it could be, so the issue did not matter as much as it could have. Which, in turn, was the reason he, Barricade, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, President Stephen Ikari, SMS Major Brera Sterne and NUNS Captain Ryuuto Machida were all gathered inside a bunker to hammer out further details regarding the Allspark and its usage rights depending on who found it first.

All Cybertronians present felt somewhat edgy, as there seemed to be a kind of buzz pervading the room that the organics/meatbags seemed to be incapable of discerning. Soundwave scanned the room periodically, but found little out of place, and what little he found didn't lead to anything. The humans had not the technology to do anything of the sort, the Autobots did not have anyone who could have done that, and of his forces only someone powerlinked to Tidal Wave could have come anywhere close to achieving the same effect. Well, Starscream might, but he had not been able to raise the Air Commander for some time, and very briefly wondered whether he and his Seekers had gotten lost in the Fold or something.

This was a very brief thought.

Soundwave scanned the other Cybertronians. Neither Prime nor Bumblebee had hit upon any idea of what it was; it seemed that being an Autobot meant you were still relatively new to the idea of allies who really like messing with you. He surveyed his own forces. The initial plan was for his own team to act as sleeper cells around the city and the various military bases until enough forces could be brought to bear for one decisive strike, though that plan didn't pan out the way he thought it would. Most of his drones were destroyed, save one who was still parked at the base just a few kilometers away, under the guise of a VF-171.

Wait, why was it booting up? And why was it lifting off?

"Director? I asked if these terms were palatable to you."

No one stopped it; Soundwave checked the local databases and found that that plane was cleared to join a live-fire exercise happening right this time. No matter, this would be a simple issue of secure-shell-handling into the drone's systems and making sure nothing strange happened. Soundwave turned on his external speakers to respond when his prodding was rewarded with an ear-splitting burst of white noise that was soon unleashed upon everyone in the vicinity.

"AH-AH-AH, YOU DIDN'T SAY THE MAGIC WORD"

Dirge.

Soundwave looked about the room and managed to get exactly one short phrase off before a swarm of missiles crashed into it.

"Oh, slag-"

* * *

**A/N**: So, after a long break and many revisions, I think this version gets the job done with the fewest amounts of author filibuster. Next chapter will have action starting up again.


	9. Chapter 9: Disinclination to Acquiesce

Chapter 9

Disinclination to Acquiesce

"_Past the point of no return  
the final threshold -  
the bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn . . .  
We've passed the point of no return . . ."_

~_Phantom__ of __the __Opera__, __musical__ (__human__)_

The first thing the crew of the Uraga-class stealth carrier _Shenyang_ detected was a massive energy spike, followed by a single pillar of violet light that smashed through its hull and into a frigate behind it, vaporizing several fighters and drones that were out on patrol duty at the same time, wounding others as it swept across the NUNS formation. Explosions rocked two more vessels, a frigate and a cruiser, as magnetic accelerator shots tore into them. Smaller beams and waves of missiles streamed forth, striking ships, fighters, satellites, anything of military value.

Across the other side of the NUNS formation, a different front was opening. Six fighter craft, each of varying alien design, darted in and out, avoiding NUNS point defense and striking back with impossibly powerful weapons. Too small for big guns to target reliably, it fell to the variable fighter wings to intercept these foes, yet these six simple fighters were proving to be horrendously difficult to deal with. Not only were they performing aerobatic feats that were impossible for human pilots to match, their shields and armor were also too strong for anything but MDE weaponry to overwhelm. In addition, each seemed to have some sort of special ability that allowed them to avoid the MDE missiles, abilities that ranged from extreme bursts of speed to dodge the missiles to shockwaves that knocked the missiles off course to "goddamn short-ranged teleportation," to use the last words of an unlucky wing leader. It especially did not help when these fighters adopted the look of the NUNS fighters, rendering it near impossible to decipher friend from foe.

Admiral Perry looked upon the various screens on the command bridge of the _Battle __Frontier_, his brows furrowed as holographic representations of the ships under his command began rapidly accumulating damage markers. Despite the days of talk and negotiations with the Cybertronians, both sides had been obstinately reluctant to yield any information regarding military capabilities. Another image popped up, this one the _Shenyang_'s first and last contribution to the battle – one of her recon-variant VF-171 that had managed to launch before the carrier's destruction captured and sent back the first images of the enemy vessel, and what a vessel it was. The front half of the ship resembled an untransformed SDF-1 _Macross_. However, where a normal carrier would have simply ended, the alien ship continued in several large, modular blocks arranged around a set of massive engines. To either side of this section were strapped a battleship, designed much like a wet navy dreadnought, but with much more armament than organic vessels could carry.

In a split-second, Perry considered the situation and came up with a solution. The enemy vessel's electronics countermeasures were sufficiently advanced that standard sensors could not get an exact fix on its location, but triangulation of the shots it fired returned an acceptable approximation. It was currently staying within the relative safety of the asteroid belt, suggesting it could be killed with the Frontier fleet's weaponry. And it hadn't unleashed an alpha strike of all its weapons on the Battle Frontier, which even a passing glance would indicate was the most powerful vessel in the entire fleet, which in turn set an upper bound on how powerful the ship's weaponry was.

"Preliminary firing solution acquired," his chief weapons officer said. "Orders?"

"Hold fire. Are Battlegroups Echo and Charlie in position?"

"Aye, sir," his bridge officer replied, highlighting them on Perry's viewscreen. "_Quarter_ as well."

"Very well. Execute Shaka maneuver, Yin variant."

* * *

Tidal Wave said nothing as he stayed within the relative safety of New Frontier's asteroid belt, sweeping his main cannon and smaller weaponry across the formation of ships arrayed in a circle above the main city of the formerly Insecticon planet. Dreadwing drones scrambled from outside his launch bays, moving to engage the human fleet that had immediately reacted as a kicked cyber-hornet nest, sending hundreds of beams, missiles, and fighters his way. He briefly considered venturing out to engage the little fleshlings in combat, but all was going well thus far. There was still no need to sacrifice the increased electronics protection of being disguised for the additional versatility of transforming.

The first thing that broke his silence was a single utterance of "slag," as his sensors picked up the massive energy readings coming from the _Battle__Frontier_ that preceded a searing blast from its main gun. The shot overcame Tidal Wave's barriers, destroyed a sizeable portion of his drones, and quickly began melting away his armor, but fortunately he began evasive maneuvers soon enough to retreat back into the asteroid belt. But the damage had been done; several of his dreadnought turrets had been destroyed, one of his magnetic accelerators rendered incapable of firing, and worst of all enough of his close-in weapons systems had been obliterated to creating a hole in his point defense network.

That was when his sensors picked up two NUNS battlegroups, one approaching from starboard, the other from port. Judging by their proximity, they must have been running on passive scanners and low power, the same method that had enabled him to hide among the asteroid belt and launch his initial surprise attack. The NUNS ships soon closed in and encircled him, blasting away at his hull and weapon mounts, their lasers gouging furrows in his armor, their missiles that slipped his point defense net digging neat circles into him as their Mass Dimensional Eater warheads did their work, unleashing tiny black holes wherever they collided. He fired back with his own batteries, but the initial attack from the Frontier reduced his firepower. His remaining drones worked furiously to defend their mothership, but the loss of so many of them hampered their combat capabilities, and his internal fabricators would not be able to replace them in sufficient time to make up for the shortfall. It was the unfortunate side effect of swarm intelligence, though one that ensured Cybertronian dominance over their drones.

"Clever meatbags," Tidal Wave growled. Looks like this was it. He called Demolishor off Powerlink. The NUNS ships currently engaging him did not need the extra damage boost that a Powerlinked Demolishor provided. No, more important was enhanced ECM. "Scrapper, Powerlink."

And then Tidal Wave transformed.

The flight deck split in two, their hulls rearranging to form arms, revealing his main gun to be two smaller guns combined into one that were mounted limb. Those shifted to the side as the dreadnought components broke apart, the deck guns rearranging themselves to fit on the shoulders and upper arms, the magnetic accelerators shifting on to form a backpack frame such that they could be brought to bear as shoulder cannons. The engines and troop carrier components compressed, then stretched themselves out to become legs and part of the torso, locking on to the aftmost part of the carrier component to form the main body. Finally, a head popped out of the chest.

Beam batteries greeted Tidal Wave, forcing him to seek cover behind an asteroid and wait for his shields to recharge. His sensors picked up two NUNS vessels and several wings of variable fighters moving to flank him.

"Bah. Give me a little more respect than that," he muttered to himself, placing one of his arm cannons above cover and firing an extended blast, grinning as his sensors saw the blips that represented NUNS assets scramble back for cover of their own. "You'll regret it if you don't."

* * *

"No challenge," Starscream laughed as he blasted a VF-171 with his null ray, his enhanced optical sensors fully taking in the sight of the pilot scrambling for the manual eject as every non-mechanical system of his fighter failed, before the Seeker commander blew up the craft with a well-placed shot to the reactor and flew off to engage another target. "No challenge at all!"

"I concur," Thundercracker replied, releasing another shockwave as he felt the MDE rounds get too close. "Though I suppose this is hardly fair for them," he added, then entered the GERWALK mode of his adopted form, fired off a few shots at the nearest NUNS fighters, and transformed back again.

"Eh, you know what they say," Skywarp added. The Seeker dodged and weaved between missiles and bursts of gunfire, before suddenly blinking out of existence only to reappear a split-second later behind his pursuers and open up, watching in glee at the fireballs that ensued. "If it's a fair fight, you're doing it wrong. Dirge, you've been patching this all through, right?"

"Don't I always?" the Seeker electronics warfare specialist replied. "Injury is sweetest when insult is added." As if to emphasize this point, several of his missiles found their target, tearing it apart mid-transformation. This received a chuckle from Thrust as he wrenched his fist from the cockpit of VF-171 squadron leader, disengaging and pushing his engines to close in on another NUNS fighter and engage it in hand-to-hand.

"You're such a dick sometimes, you know that?" Thrust said.

* * *

Soundwave was not a happy Decepticon.

Usually, he wasn't a sad one either. Or a grumpy one, or an excited one. It came with purging all but the most basic emotional subroutines to achieve maximum logical planning capability. But now he was definitely not operating at maximum logical planning capability.

Dirge had botched his plan to deal peaceably with the humans long enough for a better-equipped army to take what they wanted by force. Dirge could not be raised despite repeated hails. Neither could Starscream, or any of the other Seekers for that matter. Tidal Wave, however, could, and from Tidal Wave he found out that Starscream had apparently put the Decepticon carrier under the impression that orders from Megatron were to take the planet themselves.

_Starscream__, __you __have __much __to __answer __for__._

Soundwave would have liked to grab the Air Commander by the neck and give him a good thrashing. But he was not there – blowing apart NUNS fighters, from what Tidal Wave told him. Which was just as well, as he had another more pressing issue at hand – finding some way to salvage the situation. Currently he, Barricade, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Brera, and Alto's section of Skull Squadron stood and pointed guns at each other, each mech with their fingers on the trigger and looking for the first sign of trouble to start shooting. The only saving grace was that the human president, being a war veteran himself, saw the sense in conducting the negotiations from the copilot's seat of Machida's VF-171 and had been flown to safety as soon as the rogue drone made its attack, though he still maintained a communications link.

"Hold your fire! This was not my order!" Soundwave yelled simultaneously at both Barricade and everyone else present. "This is a misunderstanding, nothing more. Let us not do anything we will regret."

Optimus Prime, meanwhile, was quite glad he did not take Ironhide with him. He stared at the Decepticon leader. "Give us one reason we should trust you," he growled.

"I'll give you several," Soundwave replied. "I will acknowledge that that is – was – one of my drones. But I did not command it to attack this building."

"Then who did?" came Ikari's voice, through Brera's loudspeakers.

"Dirge. Another Decepticon. Electronics warfare expert. Caught me unawares, as I did not expect his presence."

"Continue."

"Even if I had," Soundwave replied, looking Optimus in the eye now. "You have fought me long enough to know that it would not be so pathetically stupid of an opening move." He made sure the last sentence was sent on public channels. Starscream should have gotten that one. "Look around you," he said, gesturing. "This is a heavily reinforced compound. I would have sent more than one mere drone, for one, as you can clearly see that none of us were significantly damaged by the attack. Also, I would make sure that I was not in the blast radius."

"Reasonable," Prime replied. "But not entirely convincing. Mr. President?"

"That does make a little sense," Ikari said. "But the best of lies always do. Regardless, assuming your words to be true, there's another snag. You said all of your forces were accounted for when we moved them to the holding facility. Yet we did not know about these drones. Explain."

"A simple mistake," Soundwave replied. "You see, President Ikari, we Cybertronians do not consider drones part of 'our forces', per se. We count manpower in terms of true Cybertronians. Drones are but mindless automata, intelligent yes, but artificially so. It would be like if your manpower count also included how many rifles there were in your factories. Prime?"

"Generally speaking, it is true what he says," Optimus replied. "Drones have intelligence in numbers but lack true sentience and a Spark, though there some with more egalitarian views about their standing in Cybertronian society."

"Fine. How many more of these guys do you have?" Ikari asked.

"I truthfully state that was my last drone." Soundwave replied.

"Alright. Well, for what it's worth, Director, I'm willing to try to resolve this thing peacefully if at all possible. These guys that are now in combat with our forces. Can you call them off?"

Soundwave paused. This was going to be a little tricky. "I can convince Tidal Wave to withdraw, provided he is not attacked on the way. I cannot order a Decepticon to not defend himself."

"And those fighters, if what I'm hearing from the _Battle __Frontier _is correct?"

"That is more difficult. Command, by right, is mine in this theater of operations, which is why I am dealing with you all. Starscream is my equal in rank, though my CO status should mean he still answers to me. The problem, then, is that he is not. I have tried to hail him and his fellow Seekers, and they are not responding."

"Unsurprising," Optimus added. "That bot was always a bit of a loose cannon."

"Well, how's this. You recall this…this Tidal Wave of yours, and I'll get Perry to call off the battlegroups he's currently engaging. We'll figure something out that doesn't result in hastening your race's extinction," Ikari offered. "As for those Seekers…"

"I will keep trying to hail them," Soundwave replied. "Defend yourselves as you will."

* * *

"You hear that, Klan? Sounds like those aliens are baiting us," Ozma Lee called to his fellow squadron leader as his VF-25 Messiah was being prepped for launch. "Punks."

Klan shrugged. "We'll make them eat those words soon enough," she replied.

"Of course we will," Ozma scoffed. "Who the hell do they think I am?" The hatch to the SMS Quarter's flight deck opened, and Ozma took in the first visual scan of his surroundings. Immediately greeting him was the scattered debris of what formerly comprised dozens of variable fighters and small warships, and he had to avoid what looked like half of the command tower of a Guantanamo-class carrier as he and several squadrons of VF-25s lifted off. As ranking officer, he made the first transmission.

"Attention all NUNS units: This is SMS Skull Leader actual. SMS Skull, Rogue, Fox, Starbuck, Wraith, and Pixie squadrons have entered the battle area. Orders are for you to clear out and us to engage. If they take on our forms, then we will withdraw and you will continue to engage."

No sooner had the first "Copy, Skull Leader" come when one of the VF-171s began glowing and pointing itself at Ozma's fighter. Ozma noticed the glow and began evasive maneuvers just in time to avoid a ridiculously fast charging punch from the enemy fighter. As the attack moved past him, Ozma could see that the thing was actually still finishing its transformation into a hunched over ape-like figure.

"Tch, that was close," Ozma grunted, transforming his own fighter into its Battroid mode and drawing his gunpod. The first couple of bursts impacted against his opponent's barriers, but it soon recovered and fired back with a beam weapon on its left arm, while a piece of VF wing formed itself into a saber in its right arm that it then used to slash at Ozma's craft. This Ozma dodged as well, but the enemy used the momentum of the strike to angle its shoulder towards Ozma's mecha. The VF thrusters that formed a sort of backpack frame for the enemy machine extended upwards, then folded over the shoulders and expelled a cloud of burning plasma that sent warning klaxons ringing throughout Ozma's cockpit and knocked his Messiah back. It then began glowing again when bursts of gunfire from a friendly VF-25 impacted against the alien mecha and separated the two combatants, followed by a swarm of missiles from the same craft.

Before he could comm his thanks, however, Ozma saw the alien disappear right before his eyes in a streak of bright blue light, reappear in front of his savior, and shoulder-check it with such force that it split apart at the midsection. The blue light that detailed the path the alien took had began fading at this point, but most curious was how none of the missiles formerly heading the alien's way exploded, as if it just phased through them.

All around Ozma, sections of variable fighters dueled the alien craft, the improved equipment and training of the SMS pilots barely able to match the superior technology and millennia of experience of the Decepticon Seekers. Through the corner of his eye, he saw Klan land a solid hit with her Queadluun-Rea's shoulder cannon on one of the enemy fighters that fizzled out its shields, forcing it to seek cover behind a large piece of space debris, but at the same time another VF-25 was destroyed when its target teleported under it and lanced through its fuselage with its lasers. Ozma's attention was mostly drawn to his own target, though, as it charged again, this time to punch the head clean off another one of Ozma's wingmen while letting loose a wave of missiles and several bursts of gunfire at other Skull Squadron elements. The second strike confirmed that yes, the enemy was not teleporting, but phasing through solid objects in its path. Ozma also noticed that it was not spamming the attack, implying there was some amount of recharge time necessary.

Time to test that theory.

Ozma narrowed his eyes, then opened them wide, noting the thickened triangle in his HUD center on the enemy VF-171 that indicated a firing pattern of "all the missiles, single target, maximize spread for highest probability to hit."

"Eat this, you son of a bitch!" Ozma roared as he thumbed the missile release, sending hundreds of micro-missiles screaming out of the Super Pack of his fighter as they raced towards the foe. Many were evaded or shot down, but a good 25 to 35 percent hit, bringing the thing's shields crashing down and forcing it to transform back into fighter mode for maximum maneuverability. This was not quite enough, as more missiles and gunfire tracked the alien fighter, at first only scratching, then digging, and finally ripping away at its armor plating as its evasive maneuvers were just not enough to avoid every shot that came its way. It charged again, but this time instead of dashing towards one of the VF-25s, it made its way towards the planet.

"Oh no you don't," Ozma growled, transforming his own VF-25 back into fighter mode, then pushing its engines in pursuit. "Skull Squadron! On my target!"

The remnants of his squadron complied, and their guns spat fire towards their quarry, their missile stocks having been depleted in the previous battle. Victory seemed within their grasp as larger pieces flew off the enemy fighter. A wing – the same wing that made up the saber from earlier, Ozma noted – flew past.

Then, the alien changed shapes again. Its hull started breaking off, piece by piece, as a peeling hard-boiled egg. The alien fighter, meanwhile, began compressing and collapsing in on itself, until it formed an ovoid figure. As the transformation progressed, Ozma found that his gunshots were having less effect_. __Looks __like __we __should __have__ saved __some__ missiles_, he thought, witnessing some of the NUNS VF-171s join in kicking the enemy while it was down, their missiles having more effect on the thing than gunfire. _File__ it __for __the__ next __battle_. The alien ovoid now picked up speed, heading faster and faster for the oceans of New Frontier. It was still too small for most shipboard guns to target, though that didn't prevent them from trying, and soon it had entered atmosphere.

Ozma checked his HUD. Four destroyed and two damaged for mission kills, out of his squadron of 12. He scanned the rest of the battlefield. Pixie Squadron was doing well on its own, Rogue and Wraith were teaming up against three more of the alien craft, while Fox seemed to be having trouble with their teleporting enemy, their leader barely avoid a swarm of missiles by doing a barrel roll, shooting down some of the projectiles, and boosting through the gap.

"Skull Squadron, move in to assist Fox squadron," he barked, turning his own guns to cover a Fox fighter.

"Thanks, Skull Leader, I thought they had me," came the reply. As Ozma grunted in acknowledgement, a deep booming voice suddenly cut into his comm receptor.

"Congratulations, human, you landed first blood on me and forced me from the field of battle," the voice announced, filled with vitriolic rage. "For that, you deserve the knowledge that it is I, Ramjet, who will rip you from your cockpit and crush you into a bloody smear on my servos. Remember my name, human, for we shall meet again."

* * *

"Starscream, what in the Inferno are you doing?" Soundwave yelled for the fifteenth time from a private channel as more and more reports of lost NUNS and SMS fighter craft came in. This was not good at all. Ikari had said he would try to settle things peacefully with the Autobots and the Decepticons, but as militarized as it was the Frontier government was still democratic at its core. Deals with an alien faction that had caused too much death to its citizenry would probably spell the end for the president's career. Statistically speaking, they were already past the casualty threshold for such a move to be seen as cowardice instead of peace-loving.

This time, however, a response came.

"Parleying with meatbags? You truly have gone soft, Director." Starscream replied, the levity of his tone grating on Soundwave already. He quashed those feelings. Emotions had no place in conflict. "These things die like drones. Why the caution?"

"Even drones in sufficient numbers can crush a Guardian," Soundwave retorted. "We cannot win on this world. Not without incurring unacceptable casualties. Megatron has placed me in command of this theater of operations, not you."

"Yet the conquest of all worlds and their resources for Cybertron, that was our Lord Megatron's grand order, was it not? And a world such as this – previously untouchable for the Insecticon presence – think of all its potential, all the fold quartz buried upon it over the millennia! All the energon that could be harvested!"

"Short-sighted fool." If Soundwave had teeth, they would have been ground to powder. Starscream was not foolish enough to take a mission statement and use it to limit the parameters of how a particular assignment could be achieved. Clearly he was being baited."You –" wait. Something else was wrong. That Boolean value – "Starscream?"

"Yes, battle-brother?"

"Why did you remove privacy protocols in your last transmission?"

"Clearly you were not about to fight, contrary to the nature of a true Decepticon," Starscream laughed, a most grating sound to Soundwave's receptors. "I was just…helping you along the rightful path."

"You have just sabotaged–"

"The seed is set." Starscream laughed. "The Iacon has been crossed. What will you do, Director?"

And then he cut the transmission.

The SMS fighters were no longer pointing their guns at the Autobots.

Soundwave considered his options.

Soundwave cursed.

"Inquiry: parley is no longer possible, I presume?" he asked.

"If conquest is your aim, we will fight you," Prime said. "We will definitely fight Starscream and his ilk. The time has come to choose a side, Soundwave."

"I'm sorry, Director. This was possible prior to that message. But now? I got what basically amounts to a declaration of hostilities," came the resigned voice of Stephen Ikari. "We're gonna have to fight. My constituency would demand no less, though the offer of amnesty to any who lay down their arms still stands."

"But I should remind you that you're a little outnumbered here, should you choose to be hostile," Brera added, hoisting his heavy quantum reaction rifle.

"Then you should know one thing," Soundwave replied. "Decepticons are never defeated. If we win, we win. If we die, our Sparks join the Matrix with all those who fall defending Cybertron, and in such a fate we find our greatest victory. And neither does retreat result in failure…"

A blinding flash and ear-splitting static filled the sensors of all present. With the sole exception of Brera, whose fighter had far more extensive ECM, foul odors began emitting from their air filters, and their air conditioning units suddenly switched to extreme heat. The SMS pilot manually aimed at Soundwave, but a blast from Barricade's shoulder cannon knocked his VF-27 down.

"…for the Fallen always rises again."

By this time, Soundwave had reformed himself into a VF-171 Recon variant, already fleeing the scene with Barricade following him on the ground.

"Soundwave to all planetside forces: Weapons free. Make your way towards the sea at the designated coordinates. I will keep you updated of road conditions."

* * *

A/N: Thus ends Chapter 9. The Seekers look like movie Starscream, with cosmetic differences that are too minor to be described in text. Tidal Wave resembles his Giga-con toy, save with some differences in where everything goes.

Inquiry: do you prefer the explicit description of how the transformation works and which vehicle part becomes which robot part? Or does the simple one to two sentence description of vehicles folding/collapsing on itself until a robot is formed as in the previous chapters suffice?


	10. Chapter 10: Destroyer of Worlds

Chapter 10

Destroyer of Worlds

"_With this proclamation, I ratify Congressional Resolution 4254, prohibiting the use of mass-dimensional eater weaponry, along with other weapons listed under Article 6, Section 12, Exhibit B of the UCMJ, within atmosphere of habitable worlds under the jurisdiction of the Macross Frontier government, excepting when authorized by a New United Nations Member Race Head Representative, passed with 15 in favor, 1 against."  
~(ex-)President Howard Glass_

"_Who was the one idiot who thought setting off miniature black holes on the planet we live in was a good idea?"  
~Reiqcuoo Ricuoomda, Senator, Island 4 (Zentradi Quarter)_

* * *

Climb. Bank left. Drop chaff. Transform. Turn around. Fire missiles. Transform again. Boost. Pull up. Line up gun sights. Barrel roll. Beam bursts. Explosion. If there was one thing Starscream enjoyed most, it was the rush of battle, the chance to unleash the power of his guns and missiles and blades upon the enemy, to watch them cower in fear as he was upon them like some vast predatory bird in their last moments.

Best of all was facing organic fighter craft and nailing them with his null ray. It had happened twice already in this battle, and a third one was in his sights. The previous victim had the supreme misfortune of getting tagged mid-turn, and the sight of the pilot immediately going into shock from loss of blood to the head due to his Inertia Store Converters failing and submitting him to over 20 Gs of force instantaneously was one that Starscream would file away in his memory banks for a long time.

Still, this battle wasn't going as easily as it had been before. It appears that his Seekers were now facing the human elites, as Ramjet had been driven off already, and the others were being pressed as well. Their enemies were all of a different mecha design, so the Seekers' previous tactic of blending into the furball would do them no good here, as there was not enough time for them to change disguises. In addition, Tidal Wave was in need of support, necessitating a change of tactics.

"Skywarp, Dirge, relieve Tidal Wave," Starscream ordered. "Thundercracker, Thrust, on me. Cover them."

One thing that made this better was the organic fighters' lack of internal fabricators. By this point in the battle, the human mecha were exclusively using their guns, having run out of missiles earlier. Starscream's Seekers – and every other Cybertronian, for that matter – were all able to reproduce their solid ammunition through an energy-to-matter conversion process powered by their Spark, an ability that stood them in good stead as the five Seekers started their plan by unleashing a wall of missiles as they sought to break out of the joint SMS-NUNS defensive corral and enter the asteroid belt.

The maneuver was effective in clearing the swarm of SMS fighters still in the vicinity. Unfortunately for Starscream's Seekers, Captain Jeffery Wilder of the SMS _Quarter_ had the foresight to keep his ship's main gun charged for such a contingency, and clearing the Messiahs provided a perfectly clear shot to the _Quarter_. Though ordinarily the Seekers would have been too small to target, Wilder had made a rather well-educated guess at their positions, and swept the area with heavy quantum reaction energy. A couple of cruisers and frigates with similar clear lines of sight got the same idea and poured their own anti-ship weaponry into it, saturating the area with beams of light.

Starscream and Thrust managed to evade with a few scratches. Dirge would have been hit, had Skywarp not swooped in, grabbed him, and blinked the both of them out of the way. Thundercracker, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. He just happened to be right at the center of the _Quarter's_ shot and ended up losing nearly his entire left side. Though he managed to save his Spark chamber, that was of little consolation, as the seven remaining members of Klan Klein's Pixie Squadron swooped in before he could go protoform, followed closely by other SMS fighters.

"Starscream," he voxed. It was not a request for aid.

"Do not go gentle, my brother."

* * *

At the New Gallia Zentradi base, a full battalion of 10-meter tall infantry and even taller power armor had gathered and took defensive positions at the parking lot that served as a temporary holding cell for Astrotrain, led by Major Khudhgai Dwaargun, their commanding officer, in his Glaug battlepod. The Decepticon Voyager had taken on the form of a Zentradi supply truck, and while Dwaargun would have liked to start shooting as soon as the drone attack on the NUNS negotiators, he had received orders to offer amnesty first and fire only in self-defense.

"This is your last chance to surrender, Decepticon soldier Astrotrain," the base loudspeaker announced. "Flash your high beams once to accept, twice to refuse. Any other response, or no response within the next minute will be considered refusal."

Then Astrotrain began to transform. The outer walls of the supply truck split into pieces, expanded, then folded in on themselves like a collapsing nanotube, the shifting metal rearranging and morphing into weapons emplacements, communications arrays, sensor mounts, armor plates, and other equipment. Weapons fire from the Zentradi troops washed over him, but even the heaviest cannons put barely a dent into his barriers. By this point, he had finished his transformation, becoming what appeared to be a hexagonal prism with thick legs and thicker arms. Two monstrous cannons were mounted on his shoulders, smaller guns and weapons hatches dotted his body, and everywhere else bristled with point-defense weaponry.

"_Deculture_," Dwaargun heard one of his lieutenants swear over the comm. "What is that?"

"It matters not. Kill it," Dwaargun replied, punctuating his order with an alpha strike, letting loose destructive bolts, shells, and missiles from every one of his mecha's weapon mounts while ordering his company to do the same. He pushed his mecha forward, strafing the Decepticon with his smaller weapons while waiting for the heavier ones to recharge.

Meanwhile, the Decepticon was giving as good as it got, charging towards the Zentradi position with guns blazing, its thundering footsteps giving the Zentradi a firsthand taste of what fighting them must have felt like from the perspective of every species that was not a race of eight-to-nine-meter-tall giants. The Zentradi often referred to humans as "microns", and facing an enemy that could call them the same was just damned unsettling.

Though Astrotrain's body was smaller in volume due to the transformation process removing much of the empty space of his truck form, he still stood easily over twice the height of the Zentradi troops. Three rotary assault cannons popped out from hatches on his left forearm, and three more from his right, pouring torrents of slugs into the Zentradi formations and shredding unfortunate infantrymen. Dwaargun put his Glaug at a sprint, just narrowly dodging several missiles that would have impacted against his position. Streams of plasma from smaller compartments in Astrotrain's arms and legs melted Corporal Ngintr's fireteam when they tried to get close with heavy explosives. Private Hradrehrz took several chest-mounted autocannon rounds to his chest, the shells apparently constructed with a slight delay fuze such that they penetrated first and turned his upper body into pink mist a nanosecond later. The two giant cannons on the thing's back had not yet been brought into play, though they were glowing with a brilliance that Dwaargun did not like. By this time, the electron beam cannon mounted on his mecha's back had recharged, and Dwaargun took careful aim upwards.

_Deculture, that was an unfamiliar sensation_.

Private Dzeenghenz and Private Vaendisz found themselves caught in the robotic monster's claws, the squeezing servos instantly crushing their chestplates and ribcages. Dzeenghenz then found himself being driven into the ground, snapping his neck instantly even as he fired wildly, while Vaendisz was cooked alive by a plasma flamer mounted in the wrist that formerly grasped Dzeenghenz.

"Monster," Dwaargun growled as he acquired a firing solution and let loose. Missiles and artillery from his fellow soldiers had managed to punch a hole through Astrotrain's barriers, and the bolt of energy from his Glaug nailed Astrotrain right in the jaw, the impact snapping the Decepticon's head back. Through his optics, Dwaargun saw a small piece fly off of where his shot landed, followed by an angry glare from the Decepticon who was now missing a piece of chin.

"My turn," Dwaargun heard from his comm.

The cannons on Astrotrain's back suddenly snapped into position, becoming braced on his shoulders. The next thing Dwaargun knew, two massive beams of energy protruded forth and swept across his formations, vaporizing everything in its path.

* * *

"Welcome aboard, Commander," Tidal Wave announced as he opened his docking bays and took in Starscream's Seekers. The temporary cease-fire before hostilities resumed allowed him to recharge his shields and begin rudimentary self-repair, and now he was in a stalemate with the NUNS battlegroups.

"Well met, Tidal Wave," Starscream replied. "Status?"

"I had to commit the rest of my fleet after the cease-fire ended. I have lost one cruiser, one frigate, and my destroyers. One cruiser and two frigates remain. What is to be our next course of action?"

"Planetfall," Starscream replied. "Powerlink with my Seekers and break out. Have your remaining ships cover our descent. Also, drop some of your passengers these coordinates. It looks like Soundwave's group may require assistance."

"Understood."

Skywarp stood in a spread-eagle position, awaiting the tangle of cables that wormed their way through data access ports in his body and eventually wound their way into his Spark chamber. He hissed as the connection was finalized, causing a brilliant display of sparks and flashes as the Decepticon carrier tapped into the Seeker's own uniquely designed technologies. A burning sensation crept from within Skywarp, small at first, then steadily increasing. He fought down the pain, pouring all the energies of his Spark into the connection.

There was, or would have been if space were not a vacuum, a deafening pop as Tidal Wave disappeared and reappeared in front of a cruiser, his knee driving itself into the human ship's bow. Five seconds later, the same thing happened, though this times the NUNS ships had dispersed enough that Tidal Wave's melee attack did not connect with anything. Several jumps later, Skywarp had worn himself out, and Thrust replaced him, allowing Tidal Wave to use the Seeker's thruster upgrades until the giant carrier had built up a speed far faster than a ship his size had any right to be. At that point, Tidal Wave went protoform, while Thrust disengaged and Dirge took his place. As Tidal Wave sped towards the planet, dropping his remaining drones and the various Cybertronian warriors under his command, Dirge used the Powerlink to amplify his electronic warfare capabilities, causing another communication and sensor blackout on the part of NUNS.

* * *

"This is proving most vexing," Admiral Perry said, sighing as he looked upon the HUD now being flooded by pop-ups. He picked up the sound-powered telephone that formed the _Battle Frontier_'s backup internal communications system. "Notify Specialist Germanotta that it is time for her first trial by fire."

* * *

Back on the planet, Ouranos Division Director Tom Banachek pored over the reports in his office, when one of the several phones on his desk rang. It was not the black normal phone, nor the red emergency phone, nor the silver encrypted phone, nor the hidden phone that provided a direct line to the security detail, but a purple phone that now glowed with the ringtone, something about a young woman with the misfortune to have been caught in a bad romance. His eyes widened at the implication.

"Admiral Perry," he said, pleasantly surprised at hearing the voice on the other end. "Can you hear me? Good. Yes, I'm glad that Project Ark seems to be working to expectations. Yes Admiral. Calling up the other specialists up right away."

Banachek smiled as he closed the connection, then made another call on the same phone.

"Specialist Astley? Gather your men. It's time for Project Ark to justify itself to the taxpayers."

* * *

"_I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling, gotta make you understand"_

Soundwave allowed himself to feel a grudging amount of respect for his organic adversaries. From what he could gather based on forays into NUNS classified files, Project Ark was an attempt to create a different version of Ranka Lee's fold communication abilities, created using a genetically modified version of Insecticon bacteria periodically injected into the intestine of host subjects. Instead of using song to communicate directly to others with the same bacteria, however, the hosts allow other messages to piggyback on the fold waves generated by their songs. This was not without its drawbacks – the waves had a limited range that could only guarantee planet-to-orbit communications given the current number of hosts, and the bacteria tended to gradually die off inside the hosts' body, necessitating periodic re-injections, which in turn increased the chances of medical complications. Thus it was only a group of aging singers past their musical prime led by a near-centenarian pop star from the 1980s who volunteered for this role, being the stopgap measure before children "introduced" to the bacteria in the womb could reach adulthood.

"_We've been together for so long, your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it"_

Cybertronians had never been able to penetrate the Insecticon fold network. It was just too different from the way Cybertronians communicated, even though both were based on fold waves. The fact that the humans have managed to make their own would not have been so bad, were it not for the fact that the technology was imperfect, which meant Soundwave was always picking up bits and pieces of song lyrics from the residual fold reverberations that the NUNS operatives generated.

But enough of that. Right now, Soundwave had other things to worry about – namely, the squadron of variable fighters on his tail, with more moving in to intercept from the Curtis LeMay Air Force Base. Specifically, Alto Saotome's and Brera Sterne's groups, as well as Diamond Force come to reinforce.

Missiles streaked towards him. The humans' rudimentary fold network only functioned as a secure communications channel, and Soundwave was still able to defeat standard NUNS electronics, such as those used to achieve missile lock. Still, the sheer volume of missiles, even dumbfired, meant it took everything Soundwave had to dodge them or shoot them down, either by using the VF-171's countermeasures or his own spread of sonic cannons.

Soundwave checked his internal navigation screens. Tidal Wave was already dropping reinforcements at the coordinates he supplied. His other forces were to the west, Astrotrain to the north, Barricade was on a side road, and soon all of them would be able to link up inside the city. There, the fighting would be better, as the NUNS forces would be sure to try to minimize civilian casualties. Once his forces were united, they could then form a speartip and break out towards the sea. Then they would be safe, at least for a while, as the process of becoming a spacefaring race generally tends to result in neglect for wet navies.

Just a little bit further now.

"_Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you"_

Bloody organics.

* * *

SMS First Lieutenant Luca Angeloni pushed his recon-variant VF-25 Messiah forward in pursuit of Soundwave, launching missiles as appropriate, blasting away with his gunpod in between, his wingmates staggered all about him and doing the same. He grunted as he saw his quarry transform, shifting from a recon VF-171 with two Ghost drones into a hovering Y-shaped robot that resembled ever so slightly a metallic dragonfly with arms, though it also had a boxy chest and a rocket tube on one shoulder. Still hovering, Soundwave raised his arms, and a deafening crash, audible even from inside Luca's cockpit, emitted from the appendages, the result of two massive blasts of sound. Luca grit his teeth as he fought with the controls of his fighter. Flying in atmosphere was a whole different animal compared to flying in the vacuum of space. Still, there were some who didn't need to make the adjustment.

"Simon, Johann, Peter, Judah System activate!" he said, releasing the shackles on his three attack drones. These Decepticons prided themselves on being a warrior race of robots? Let them see what human ingenuity and engineering were capable of. "Unleash the strength that once held Macross City in fear!" The three AIF-7S Ghost drones sped off in front of him, joined by six more launched from other RVF-25s, their internal systems automatically making correction for the sudden turbulence.

"FOOLISH HUMAN"

Luca nearly jumped as the intrusion into his headphones. The new fold communication network provided a secure channel of communication, but they didn't prevent conventional channels from being invaded.

"YOU SEND MERE DRONES TO ATTACK ME?

YOU KNOW NOT WHO YOU ARE HACKING WITH

ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"

Right then, Luca saw his three drones immediately circle back and fire at his own wingmen, blowing apart one friendly VF-25 and taking the wing off another before waves of missiles from himself, Alto, and Brera took out one and forced the other two off. As they circled back, a shot from Vasily's sniper variant Messiah tore one apart. The other SMS sections had less luck, and soon had to contend with their own run-amok drones.

"Good shot," Luca heard Alto call out. Indeed, atmospheric flight meant that Vasily could not use the standard sniper VF tactic of anchoring himself to a passing asteroid or warship to stabilize his shots, instead forcing him to hover in GERWALK mode or, in this case, fire the sniper gunpod on the move in fighter mode.

"One less," Vasily replied, firing another shot at Soundwave and scowling as the Decepticon swerved to dodge. He pulled his own fighter in a tight loop as Soundwave transformed again, firing another blast from his sonic cannons that dispersed the SMS formations. This one cost him, however, as Brera's heavy quantum reflex rifle sent a heavy beam right into Soundwave's barriers, draining them with a single hit. The cyborg pilot dodged an answering shot from Soundwave and danced around a brace of subsequent missiles, but two hijacked Ghost drones forced him back.

"Attention all units: hijacked drones have improved shielding and processing power. Engage with caution," Luca heard Brera comm to everyone. The hijacked drones' ranks had been thinned, though they had taken some SMS fighters with them. Luca saw a distinctly painted drone get behind Vasily.

"Sorry, Johann," he whispered, lining the drone within his sights and pouring fire into it from his gunpod. Vasily, meanwhile, pulled his fighter up into a loop. The drone easily followed it, but shaking the drone was never the intention. Rather, it was to leave the line of fire open for Luca to launch a cloud of missiles, destroying the drone without accidentally busting up Vasily's fighter in the process.

Luca scanned the horizon again. Soundwave had gotten ahead in the ensuing chaos, though Diamond Force had now arrived, and judging from the flying punch that was just launched and barely dodged by the Decepticon commander, Major Ryuuto Machida was leading them.

All right. At this rate, they might just kill their target – maybe even capture it.

* * *

As soon as the word of "weapons free" came from Soundwave and "treachery" came from Optimus Prime, the Wellington Army Base had become a battleground between the Autobot and Decepticon forces formerly held there. In the opening salvo, PPC bolts from Blackout, plasma cannon blasts from Brawl, and railgun shots from Blitzwing were answered by fusion cannon fire from Ironhide and quantum heavy reaction blasts from Arcee's sniper component, completely obliterating the bunker that had housed the two factions and knocking both sides to the ground, whereupon transformation occurred and the battle restarted anew. However, the open terrain meant that both sides had soon scrambled to find better – the Decepticons were now on the main road towards the city, with the Autobots in pursuit. That simply would not do.

"Spawn of a glitch," Blackout growled as he saw the several dozen new blips on his HUD, approaching from his squad's left flank. Further examination exposed them as a mixed force of Cheyenne, Tomahawk, and Spartan Destroids. He immediately fired off a disruptor bomb in their direction, all the while reforming his squad in a diamond such that Bonecrusher, his melee specialist, took point in the rear, using his Energon claws' disintegration field to intercept shells and missiles. Brawl, in his tank mode, took the side where the Destroids were approaching from, blocking hits as well as using his main cannon to return fire. Blackout himself took the other side, being able to sweep both the Autobots and the Destroids with his chainguns as well as fire over his squadmates with his grenade launcher. Bringing up the front was Blitzwing who, in his Cybertronian tank mode, had the most powerful indirect-fire weapon of all of them, and could therefore fire over al their heads at whatever needed killing. This formation had been adequate for shaking the ground forces pursuing them, though the Autobot forces were proving more vexing, using their speed to doggedly pursue them all the way.

More blips appeared on Blackout's radar, landing on an intercept course. Blackout was about to rearrange his squad again, but an IFF scan proved this unnecessary.

Fourteen protoform capsules crashed into the earth, spilling plumes of dust and debris above where they landed. There was a hiss as the protoforms unhinged and arranged themselves into their combat forms.

The standard land assault drone had a basic bipedal upright frame, with two arms that carried an assault weapon, a sidearm, and a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon. A squad of these drones now formed two fireteams that provided covering fire for their fellows – a Gestalt squad, whose strength laid primarily in their ability to combine into a mobile assault platform. And combine they did, limbs and bodies entwining into one gargantuan platform, four-legged with an arching head that made it slightly resemble an Apatosaurus.

"A bruticus," Blackout noted. Not _the_ Bruticus, the squad of Decepticons who provided the body-schematics for these drones having been dispatched to make war upon the Poleepkwa system. _Warp-blasted prawns_, Blackout thought, briefly recalling first contact between them and the Cybertronians. _Something about their body structure just rubs me the wrong way._ His thoughts then turned to the situation at hand. The recently dropped Gestalt bristled with point defense, and came with weapons for all situations – two anti-vehicle turrets on the shoulders, missile boxes on its haunches, and two anti-armor beam cannons on the back. But it was the siege pulse displacer built into the head that, when charging, resembled a rather large flashlight that was the real killer. Still, even with all that weaponry, Blackout doubted the reinforcements would stop the Autobots and NUNS forces for long. A lone Cybertronian might be wary about taking on a Gestalt alone, even if it was only a drone-copy, but a squad of Optimus Prime's best was a different matter entirely.

Then again, it was just a drone. All it had to do was buy them time.

Blackout could see the skyline of Frontier City now.

* * *

Thundercracker transformed, let loose a pinpoint barrier shockwave to protect against the gunfire coming his way, then sped towards a large piece of space debris, part of a frigate's bow. Upon landing on the object, wires and cables snaked from his limbs, breaking it down to its basic atoms for use as repair components. Over time, Cybertronians could eventually self-repair from the most grievous of injuries as long as their Spark chambers were intact and they had sufficient energy, but time Thundercracker did not have and Klan unwilling to give.

Barrages of lasers and bullets stabbed into the debris, and Thundercracker had to disengage and look for another source of material. He has siphoned enough to just barely seal the armor around his Spark chamber and performed basic repair on his thrusters, but he was going to need more. Unfortunately for him, Klan had noticed this as well, and soon the various fighters were alternating taking shots at him and at the pieces of space junk littering the battlefield. Between the expertly placed shots of the SMS fighters and nearby NUNS ship gunners, soon the area was clear of debris.

"You got one shot if you want to live," Klan commed.

Thundercracker replied with a burst of laser fire and missiles that scattered her wingmen. The Seeker put on an unexpected boost of speed and rushed right up to her Queadluun-Rea battlesuit, transformed, and thrust his right arm in an outstretched spear-hand at her. Klan quickly pulled her suit back, but Thundercracker's hand still penetrated the left shoulder pad of the suit. Right that moment, Klan's HUD flared up with warning screens indicating anomalous loss of mass.

Klan shook her head. _The bot was trying to repair itself using her mech!_

"I'm not so easily taken," she said, grabbing Thundercracker's stump of a left arm with her own. A little pushing, a little nudging, and the glowing blue orb in the center of his chest lined up perfectly with the barrel of her shoulder-mounted impact cannon.

Klan fired.

* * *

"Senator, I need Weapons Restriction State Zero."

"Major…"

"Senator, we are being slaughtered."

"You know this is unprecedented."

"So is an enemy that can call us 'micron'."

Senator Reiqcuoo Ricuoomda sighed. As the head representative of the _Frontier_ fleet Zentradi, he was the only one other than President Ikari himself with the authority to pull out all the stops in this fight. His eyes swept over his desk, falling briefly on the crystal plaque presented to him by the Frontier chapter of Pax Viridis, for his role in co-authoring Congressional Resolution 4254 banning many of the more devastating weapons in habitable atmosphere. His hand drifted to the pin on his suit that bore the crest of the Senate Committee on Environmental Affairs. Yet the reports from New Gallia…

"Senator, now or never. All the infantry and most of the power armor are gone. I and a surviving battlesuit squad are in the armories. The walls still hold, but not much longer."

"Authorization granted. Good hunting, Major."

* * *

"That's it, cry some more!" Astrotrain shouted, laughing as he walked upon the bloodstained grounds. Wreckage and fire surrounded him, results of his rampage through New Gallia. Initially there had been various attempts to stop him, but those had mostly died down, the inevitable result of usual Zentradi weapons having too little effect on him and his return fire having too much effect on them. Suddenly, another wave of missiles and gunfire sprang out from the darkness. It was not a problem for Astrotrain's barriers or point-defense.

"Grown desperate, have we?" Astrotrain laughed, training his guns on the sources of the attacks. Such was his battle mirth that he didn't quite register the first reaction warhead that impacted against and immediately overloaded his barriers, first with the blast wave, then with the resultant firestorm. Astrotrain had barely the time to reconfigure his point defense when another warhead smashed into him, messily severing his right leg at the knee joint. Astrotrain toppled to the ground, roaring in anger. His back cannons whined as they glowed with power.

"Onwards! It is but a machine, and machines can be broken!" Major Dwaargun shouted from the cockpit of his limping Glaug in an attempt to rally his battlesuited troops. Even from over two kilometers away, his mecha's stabilizers strained themselves to correct for the massive blastwave. The Zentradi machine's sensors and EMP hardening just barely prevented them from suffering the blinding flash of nuclear initiation, though so many going off at once would give them fatal doses of radiation even through their battlesuits' built-in protection – not that it mattered if they couldn't bring down the Decepticon. "Strike true and strike with precision!"

Four reaction warheads streamed forth from the Glaug and collided squarely into Astrotrain's upper body, each one creating a deafening boom, each emitting a blinding flash, each bathing the area in a sea of brilliant flame. At the same time, another warhead hit one of Astrotrain's back cannons, causing a chain reaction of explosions rippling down his side. The Decepticon struck back, firing wildly at everything around him. Surrounding buildings, reinforced as they were, were rent into pieces by the force of the reaction initiations and Decepticon weapons fire. Several more reaction warheads, along with the last salvo of New Gallia's conventional weapons, rained down upon Astrotrain's position.

When the smoke cleared, all that remained of New Gallia or its surrounding areas was a vast plain of glass surrounded by a ring of charred blackened nothingness.

* * *

A/N: Soundwave's robot mode is meant to resemble his Revenge of the Fallen form as seen on the title pic on the Transformers wiki, except with the chest/upper torso of his G1/War for Cybertron robot mode.

Picture Astrotrain as a Warhammer 40K Dreadnought, save with two arms and the SDF-1's shoulder cannon things.

Credit for the effects of Reaction Weapons (Macrossverse's nukes) goes to what I could gather from Wikipedia and Stuart Slade's work Pantheocide.

There have been some mention of transformerwank, so let me reiterate the following – 1. Transformers' cartoon incarnations are a threat-ish to a late 80s US military, and their movie incarnations can be blown up by modern military hardware; in no way would there be a story if I kept this power level, as no matter how well they hid or used electronics warfare, one shot from any Macross fighter craft would kill its Transformer target, hence their depiction here as extremely ancient and advanced machines that require a lot to kill. 2. As an army, the Transformers do have weaknesses that will be more apparent later on; they are aware of these weaknesses and are fighting in such a way that minimizes them (concentrating all their force for singular devastating strikes, reducing the enemies' weapons options with electronics warfare, using special abilities which are an established part of TF lore to avoid the most hard-hitting NUNS weapons, etc), while NUNS is on the defensive and is at a natural disadvantage because of that. 3. I welcome criticism, however please note why the reasons I present for why things are the way they are do not work, and please sign the review so I can actually respond to you instead of leaving a blanket author's note that I'm sure some will ignore anyway.


	11. Chapter 11: March to the Sea

Chapter 11

March to the Sea

"_What do you mean, 'disappeared'?"_  
"_I mean just that, sir. I fired my impact cannon at a container with a blue glowing orb in the middle – what I now understand holds a 'Spark', which seems to be like a combination heart-brain-soul to them, destroying that is supposed to kill them. I shot it, there was a flash, and then it just disappeared. No wreckage or anything, except what was already shot off by the time I landed what I believe to be the killing shot."  
~Transcript, post-battle interview of SMS Captain Klan Klein_

"Leakin' lubricants," Ironhide growled as a cluster of missiles spiraled towards him from the bruticus's pods, pinning him down and temporarily dissuading him from popping above cover to bring his two fusion cannons to bear. The Gestalt drone's other weapons lanced at Ironhide's Autobot comrades and their mixed destroid and variable fighter reinforcements. A siege pulse blast shattered a Destroid squad.

Being landbound mecha, Destroids did not have the maneuverability of their variable fighter cousins. However, they were easier to mass produce, and a full company of the mecha plus several squadrons of VF-171s were easily able to turn the tide of battle. One of the last Decepticon drones fell apart into pieces after being struck too many times by Destroid arm cannons and VF gunpods. Several VFs were scythed from the sky by the bruticus' shoulder turrets, but their last salvo of missiles found their mark and rendered the turret a threat no more. More missiles and autocannon rounds pounded against the massive form's chassis. Ironhide saw Ratchet fire off a sustained burst with his pulse laser rifle while using his medical electromagnetic arrays to pick up a nearby drone corpse and hurl it at the bruticus's back-mounted cannons, causing their most recent blast to veer off target, gouging two deep holes into the ground instead of the squad of Destroids formerly in the line of fire. They, in turn, thanked the Autobot medic by rocking the Gestalt with cannonade and beam barrages.

Ironhide stood up, took aim, and sent two fusion cannon blasts right into the bruticus's torso. Meanwhile, Jazz and two Arcees had now appeared behind the Gestalt, racing towards it and picking up speed. It turned to meet the new threat, but at that moment more rounds from the human mecha as well as Ratchet and Ironhide poured into the bruticus, severing one of its front legs. As it sought to rebalance itself, Jazz and one of the Arcees – the CQC variant - transformed and vaulted onto the thing's back.

"Yo dawg, I heard you liked guns," Jazz quipped as he regained his balance. "So I put a gun in your gun…" He pulled out a railgun and placed the muzzle right at one of the bruticus's back cannons, then pulled the trigger, sending forth a magnetically accelerated slug that tore through one of the barrels. "Now you can't shoot while you shoot."

"For Primus's sake, must you always do that?" Arcee said as she dug into the other back cannon with her Energon blades. "It's actually somewhat grating." Her chain whip snaked out from her left arm, whereupon the generalist Arcee chassis sped out, gripped it, and was pulled up right to the bruticus' neck level. The lightning claw on her left arm crackled with energy as she as she charged it, jammed it upwards into the thing's throat, and tore.

The siege pulse displacer, along with the bruticus's primary processors, fell to the ground with a crash.

Jazz took one last stab into the chassis, then he and the two Arcee units leapt off as fusion cannon blasts from Ironhide, quantum reflex rifle fire from sniper Arcee, and various other weapons from Ratchet and the NUNS forces finished the dying Gestalt.

"Everyone good to go?" Ironhide asked, noting affirmatives from his Autobots. "Good. Let's make up for lost time."

* * *

"Blackout, how are your forces holding?"

"Not well, Director," Blackout replied. The accursed Project Ark was beyond even Soundwave's abilities to penetrate, and thus the human forces had been quick to get their act together after the initial confusion. Only 2.5 kilometers separated him and his allies from Frontier City's borders, but in between them were clusters of police Destroids and Zentradi powered armor formed up in spread-out impromptu barricades, with several squadrons of variable fighters hovering overhead and more forces incoming, too many for them to simply tank and power through. Blackout launched his disruptor bombs, but they were of limited use against the saturation of beams, missiles, and autocannon shells that greeted him and his forces, forcing them into a cluster of half-hill, the nearest approximation of cover they could find.

He didn't need to give orders as Blitzwing assumed the siege mode of his Cybertronian tank form, six struts extending from the sides of his chassis and digging into the ground for stability while the two stubby barrels of his main turret collapsed inwards and a single thick boxy tube extended from the other end. Next to him, Brawl lay prone, running a last minute diagnostic on the railgun formed out of his human tank disguise's autocannon. A heavy explosive cluster round from Blitzwing arced towards the human-Zentradi positions, vaporizing one of the impromptu barricades and the several Destroids seeking cover behind it, and several VF-171s were brought down by well-placed shots from Brawl. Blackout lent his own chaingun and bolt cannon to the mix, aiming to thin the enemy herd some more before venturing out to advance. Bonecrusher howled as he paced about, and Blackout understood his frustration; as the close-quarters specialist, Bonecrusher's primary weapons were the massive power claws on his back and the plasma flamers on his arms, and the inability to contribute more firepower than a single autocannon rifle was most vexing. The last friendly blip on Blackout's HUD went dim, and he knew that soon the Autobots and NUNS forces they left behind would be in the game again.

"Bonecrusher, with me! Go!" Blackout ordered, hurling another disruptor bomb before leaping from cover and rushing the nearest Destroid barricade, firing his weapons at full-auto at anything and everything that showed up as red on his targeting reticules. He heard Bonecrusher give a brutish and rough warcry, undoubtedly from the campaign against the greenskin, as the close combat specialist transformed into his mine-protected vehicle mode to gain speed. Shells and bullets pinged against his barriers, then against his armor, but not enough penetrated to prevent the Decepticon warrior from transforming back and using the momentum from his earlier charge to crash into the human position.

Supercharged streams of energy danced up and down the talons of Bonecrusher's power claws as they swiped at Destroids and Zentradi battlesuits, the matter-disruptive fields around the claws disintegrating all they came into contact with as they dug at and slashed into the human mecha. A single Spartan managed to survive the initial strike, having deflected the swipe meant for it with a pinpoint-barrier-charged club, but a follow-up blast of plasma melted through its cockpit. VF gunpods and missiles rained down upon Bonecrusher, but Blackout and Brawl both provided enough covering fire to prevent them from unleashing too much firepower. Soon Blackout was in the barricade with Bonecrusher, and he sent the signal for Blitzwing and Brawl to move up as well, even as more and more hostile blips appeared from the edges of Blackout's sensors, along with a - large friendly one?

Looking up, Blackout saw Tidal Wave's massive protoform hurtling towards the ocean, along with four smaller blips that ventured out. Two of them split off, heading for his position, while two more appeared to be on an intercept course with Soundwave.

"Need a hand? Or several?" One of them voxed. _Dirge_.

"The situation is under control," Blackout replied, "though if you wish to add more notches to your gun then by all means do so."

"Haha, will do," added another voice. _Thrust_. The IFFs of the other two signified Starscream and Skywarp. He knew Ramjet was somewhere else on this world. Which left-

"I don't suppose any of you could tell me what in the Inferno happened to Thundercracker?" Blackout added. Something was odd about the fate of the Seeker. It was standard Decepticon practice to link the processes of all friendly forces to facilitate tactical cohesion. Thus, Blackout had witnessed almost firsthand the first engagements against the NUNS fighters from Starscream's Seekers, then the second one against the SMS; he'd felt their exhilaration in battle, albeit diminished and filtered through the network; he'd seen the bright red Meltran powered armor point its anti-ship weapon at Thundercracker's battered Spark chamber and let loose.

And then there was nothing. No more new uploads of data came from Thundercracker, nor did the Seeker respond to any pings, but Blackout had felt nothing that indicated the Seeker had joined the Matrix. Normally the death of any member in the network would create a brief but debilitating feedback among all others linked; the network feedback from Astrotrain's death had distracted Blackout enough for him to eat several autocannon shells to the chest. He recovered, of course, and melted the offending Destroid from which the shells originated with two particle projection cannon shots. But why-

"Blackout, be advised, I detect eight VB-6 Konig Monsters setting up beyond your scanner range. You are within the killzone. Forwarding coordinates," Soundwave voxed. Blackout sent back an affirmation, then forwarded the new data to his squad in turn. A steady volley from ever increasing NUNS forces pinned Blackout's squad, however, even as they took in the data and plotted escape vectors. Above them, Thrust and Dirge engaged NUNS fighter craft. Blitzwing, still on the move, swiveled his turret and lobbed a shell that pulverized one of the Monsters. Blackout added a disruptor bomb to the mix, aiming to delay the artillery mecha's firing solutions. Brawl performed a combat roll, landed in prone position, and took aim at another, but a shot from a Queadluun-Rea's impact cannon knocked his aim off by several meters. Blackout launched two bolts of ionized particles at another, spearing it right through the center torso.

Blackout suddenly felt a searing blast dig into his back, one that melted through a sizeable amount of his armor but stopped just short of his Spark chamber. He roared in pain, remembering the last time he'd felt a similar sensation, on that night where he had been dispatched to find the human Sheryl Nome. The Autobots were within range. This was not good.

Twenty-four 320mm railguns and thirty-six heavy missile tubes roared.

Blackout suddenly found himself floating. He and his bots had enough point defense to knock out some of the shells and missiles in mid-flight, but the storm of suppressive fire from the ever-increasing NUNS forces distracted them, prevented them from intercepting all the projectiles. They crashed into Blackout's position, the sheer force of the explosions threw the Decepticons violently upwards, tossing them about, limbs flailing like stringless puppets.

The fortunate thing was that Cybertronian ECM blocked the VB-6s' guided shells, such that none of them landed a direct hit that would almost certainly have proven fatal. The area of effect nature of the Konig Monsters' rounds also softened the ground, and the drop down resulted in almost all of Blackout's forces sinking deep into pulverized earth rather than hitting hard rock. Unfortunately for Blackout, the VB-6 pilots had fired a staggered volley, such that the second half of the railgun shells and heavy missiles landed right when the Decepticons were stuck in the ground, the earth becoming a vise that held them in place while the violent force of the detonations wrenching their bodies this way and that, resulting in snapped limbs and crushed weapons and imploded armor plating.

Blackout ran a system diagnostic. Barrier systems shot. Spark chamber compromised. Left leg gone in the middle of the thigh. Left shoulder unresponsive. Left chestplate gone, cracking all over the center torso. Right knee fractured. PPCs offline. Chaingun damaged. Grenade launcher gone. He reached up to fire a suppressive burst with his boltgun, but found that the limb was less than responsive. His HUD displayed more and more mecha inbound. Blackout pinged his squad. Brawl and Blitzwing were similarly damaged. Bonecrusher was unfortunate enough to have a railgun shell hit his pelvis, obliterating his chassis below the chest, the residual blast stopping just short of his spark chamber, and sending him directly into stasis lock.

"Blackout." The voice was urgent. Concerned, almost. "Sitrep?"

"Squad at 8.23% combat efficiency," Blackout replied. "Bonecrusher in stasis lock, uploading diagnostic readings for Blitzwing, Brawl, and myself. Projections indicate inability to make rendezvous point. Are reinforcements available?"

There was a brief, minute pause.

"None available. Do not go gentle, Blackout."

"Never, Director. Preparing Tyrest Protocol Zero."

"Belay that," Soundwave replied. "I release command of Blitzwing, Brawl, and Bonecrusher to you. Uploading digital signature. Handle the situation as you see fit."

"Yes, Director." As Blackout closed the communications channel, he heard a sharp rumbling voice behind him.

"Any last words?" Ironhide.

"Come to mop up, have you?" Blackout growled in anger. He checked his HUD. Barricade at least got into the city, and Soundwave and Starscream's Seekers were still dodging NUNS fighters. He looked around. Jazz and the Arcees in view kept their weapons lowered but ready to use in an instant. Ratchet was powering his electromagnetic arrays. The NUNS Destroids and two squadrons of variable fighters were moving in as well, slow and cautious, guns at the ready. He sent a quick set of private voxes to his still conscious squadmates.

"You. Ironhide," Blackout called, hauling himself up with his still responsive limbs, grimacing as the pistons and cables and wheels and gears complained at the strain. "Do it."

Ironhide looked pensive, but did nothing.

"Come on," Blackout growled. "You know how it is. Hell, I campaigned with you on Eywa, and on Sigma Octanus, and on Doisac. You know. 'On bended knee is not a Decepticon tradition'."

"We're not like you, Blackout," Arcee replied, contempt in her voice.

"Of course not, Praetorian," Blackout spat. "You were never in the shit. You weren't there." He looked back at Ironhide. "I'd rather it be you than these Praetorians-" he gestured to Arcee and Jazz – "or the meatbag-lover-" he gestured to Ratchet – "or these Pit-blasted meatbags themselves." He stared Ironhide in the optics. No response. "Bah. The Autobots made you soft. Forget it. What more could I expect from one who associates with the lackeys of Prime the Bearingless and Yoketron the Shirker-"

"Bitch you better shut yo' bitch-ass mouth about Grandmaster Yoketron," Jazz retorted angrily, stomping towards Blackout with an Energon blade drawn. "'less you want a shiv up yo ass, and I'd be glad to oblige."

Blackout ignored him. "What's wrong, Ironhide? Even the dog of that antiquated coward has more bearings than you."

"Motherf-" Jazz stabbed his blade into Blackout's Spark chamber but cursed when Blackout lunged at the same time, propelling himself forward with the stumps of his legs and his one useful arm. He gripped the Autobot tightly, grinning inwardly as he felt the smaller Autobot struggle to break free.

"Initiating Tyrest Protocol Zero. It has been an honor, Director. Uploading Testament," Blackout privately voxed as he overloaded his Spark chamber. The explosion engulfed both Cybertronians in a brilliant blue flame, and the other Autobots still present reeled from the network feedback. Brawl and Blitzwing readied their few remaining operational weapons; Blackout had cut himself off from the Decepticon network before his self-destruct, and so had avoided harming his own crew. A single railgun shell from Blitzwing's one operational cannon and a cluster of missiles from Brawl tore into Ratchet, blasting through his barriers, taking off his right arm at the bicep, and gouging a perilously large and close furrow to his Spark chamber as the Autobot turned to shield himself from the attack. The pair of wrist blades on Brawl's arms propelled themselves forward and stabbed into the generalist Arcee's center torso, separating the upper body from its one-wheeled base. Before the two Decepticons could do more, however, Ironhide had recovered enough to pump two fusion cannon blasts at near point-blank into Blitzwing's exposed Spark chamber, and a single shot from sniper Arcee took off Brawl's head.

"How's the arm?" Ironhide asked Ratchet. The medic was moving his stump in experimental circles, testing for additional complications.

"Preliminary diagnostic indicates pure damage, one status effect. The missiles were loaded with incendiary material, so recovery will take longer than normal. Otherwise, everything seems fine." Ratchet looked at the pieces of Jazz and sighed. "Certain members of our party notwithstanding. How few remain…"

Ironhide nodded. With the AllSpark gone the loss of every Cybertronian was an irreplaceable loss, and typically Autobots and Decepticons chose stasis lock and imprisonment with the hope of later prisoner exchange over mutual destruction. Then again, Jazz was part of Optimus Prime's personal team, one of the few bands of Autobot resistance left, and so it appeared somewhat reasonable to Ironhide that Blackout might choose to sacrifice his already heavily damaged team for one – well, one and one third, to be more precise – Autobot.

"Well, time to execute Tyrest, then," Ironhide said, pumping his cannons and aiming it at the unpowered Decepticon chasses at his feet when a single machine gun shot in between himself and his would-be target interrupted him.

"Belay that, Autobot," the loudspeakers on a Cheyenne Destroid announced. "This is Major Winters of the 506th Destroid Battalion, ranking officer of NUNS forces in this area. I have orders from the President himself to take any and all downed alien bodies for study by our scientists."

Ironhide's eyes flared as he stomped towards the Destroid. "You dare point a gun at me?" He demanded, raising a fist in anger. Winters' Cheyenne took a step back but still trained its guns on Ironhide's center of mass.

"Just doing my duty, sir. In light of your assistance we can let you take back your comrade's body to do with as you see fit. Are we going to have a problem?"

"Calm down, Ironhide," Ratchet said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Ironhide's shoulder while the two Arcees wheeled between him and the human mecha. Ironhide stood in places, then activated his comm array.

"Prime, this is Ironhide. We have…a situation."

* * *

Starscream was loving this more than he should. Scratch that, there was no such thing as loving something more than one should; if it is to be loved than it is to be loved with all the love he could spare.

Brera, meanwhile, was not. His squadron had been engaging the Seeker commander for a while, with Alto's squadron still tangling with Soundwave and Machida's engaging Skywarp. They ran into the same issues that the SMS and NUNS elements in space had had, namely the inability to get large numbers into the mix due to possibility of blue-on-blue incidents and running out of missiles. Brera landed a glancing hit on Starscream's form, blowing off a chunk of armor, but at the same time a shot from the Seeker's null ray sent one of his wingmen crashing into the ground. Alto Saotome pulled his Messiah into a sharp left, narrowly avoiding one of Soundwave's sonic blasts, but the same move put him on a collision course with one of his wingmen, forcing both of them to alter course. Machida's HUD displayed one less Diamond Force VF-171 when Skywarp teleported on top of it and put his fist through its cockpit.

_This would not do_, Machida thought as he fired at the Seeker, putting an extra burst of speed when he noticed it disappear with a "pop" again.

_One._

Sure enough, Skywarp appeared behind him, but the boost put Machida's craft just beyond the range of the Seeker's swipe.

_Two._

As Skywarp zigzagged through the gunfire being thrown his way and brought up his weapon – a particle projection cannon – and fired at Machida's tail, Machida transformed his craft into GERWALK mode and fired the feet thrusters, such that the shot passed a hair below his fighter's rear fins. A quick push of a button completed the VF-171's transformation to its humanoid Battroid form.

_Three._

Now it was Machida's turn to pump bursts of beam and bullet fire at Skywarp's dodging form. Machida counted the seconds, noting the time it had been taking in between the Seeker's teleportations, comparing them to previous records in his head. Soon he had counted to eight, and sure enough the Seeker disappeared again, this time clipping the wing of another VF-171 that arrived late to the party.

_Pattern confirmed._

Machida thumbed the private channel switch – it seemed as if the thing was working now – and transmitted a set of instructions to his squadron. He then shot off a burst of gunfire that took off some of the plating on Skywarp's left forehead. The Seeker abruptly turned towards him in anger and returned fire, but Machida was already transformed back into fighter mode and evaded the shots coming his way. Nine seconds later, the Seeker disappeared again. Two seconds prior, every member of Diamond Force abruptly transformed into GERWALK or Battroid mode. A second after that, every pilot made ready to train their guns on another one of their wingmen.

When Skywarp reappeared in robot mode below Machida's fighter, preparing to launch a thruster-assisted kick right up the Battroid's pelvis, the first thing that greeted him was a constant stream of full-auto gunpod fire from Machida's second-in-command that caught him off-guard and distracted him for a split-second, followed by a pinpoint-barrier charged punch from Machida's own craft as it recognized its enemy and dove down as a swooping falcon, fully utilizing the forces of thrust and gravity to assist the energized strike. To all who were not too busy dodging other Seekers to watch, the event seemed to happened in slow motion. One particular gun cam caught Skywarp's optics widening as the Seeker realized his error and heard Machida's triumphantly shouted taunt of "did you think that was going to work every time", followed by the shattering of both Machida's fighter's forearm and Skywarp's faceplate, followed then by the Seeker seemingly dazed by the blow and dropping like a lead weight from the sky.

More reinforcements arrived by this point, but they had been reduced to hovering around and taking potshots when a clear target presented itself, their survivability due to the variable fighters actively engaging the Decepticon Seekers being more important targets. As soon as what would later be called the "Machida Anti-Teleportation Counter" was being birthed, however, they pounced on the fallen Seeker like hyenas on a lone wildebeest. The need to avoid friendly fire meant they still had a considerable amount of their missile payloads, and those crashed into Skywarp's falling form, rending and tearing apart chunks of armor. It was around that time that news of the VB-6s' actions against Blackout's Decepticon force arrived via public broadcast stoked the human pilots' morale and kept them fighting even harder, pouring their missiles into the Seeker when available and firing their gunpods to near the overheat point.

Three seconds in, Skywarp came to, and he raised his arms to protect his mangled face from the barrage of ordnance coming his way. Five seconds in, he regained control of his thrusters and transformed, though the damage was easily visible through the many dents and holes dotting his fuselage, which swayed and tottered in the air as it sought to flee the arena.

Then Thrust and Dirge had arrived. Barriers down, armor damaged, squadrons of fighters on their tail, but still able to fight now that they no longer had a target to defend. Suddenly, the tables had turned again. Waves of missile and beams streaked towards the NUNS and SMS formations, scattering bystander and frontline combatant alike, allowing the Seekers and Soundwave to put enough distance between them and the human fighters to finally escape.

All, that is, except for Skywarp. As Brera and Vasily dodged the missiles and gunfire coming their way, they veered off into the distance, went into GERWALK mode, hovered, and hoisted their rifles at the same target – the still damaged Skywarp. Both pilots aimed for the center of mass as the Seeker began his evasive turn a split-second too late and a heavy quantum beam and a 55mm ultra high-speed armor-piercing round speared into his thrusters. The result was that the heavily-damaged Skywarp was now dead in the air on a highly predictable course and surrounded by two squadrons of the best pilots in the entire SMS and Frontier fleets. The Seeker tried teleporting once, but his lack of propulsion meant that he was easily tracked by NUNS weaponry, and soon repeat performances in the role of ammo sponge took their toll on the Cybertronian. Amidst the many many explosions that impacted Skywarp's frame, Machida saw some that took on a distinctive deep purple hue – someone was ignoring the prohibition on MDE weaponry. Bits and pieces – described in Machida's after-action report as "rather like powdered kibble" – fell off Skywarp's chassis, and when the tattered Seeker suddenly disappeared under an explosive cloud of missile fire, every NUNS fighter present aimed their guns at a wingmate, only to discover that the Seeker did not reappear.

"Let's call it in," Machida announced over the comm as a fly-by by a newly arrived recon VF-171 squadron discovered no new enemies, save for those too far for anyone but pilots of sniper-variant fighters to shoot at. Suddenly, his comm light flashed, signaling an incoming transmission.

"Scratch that, new orders," Machida called out to his squadron. "Forwarding coordinates."

* * *

Optimus Prime was not a happy Autobot. Jazz, one of his most trusted subordinates who had followed him since day one of the Civil War, was now dead. Arcee was adjusting to missing one of her components. He and Bumblebee were not fast enough to arrive at either of the two ground theaters of combat to make a difference.

And now the humans were making demands that would have horrified his predecessors. By Primus, he could imagine the late Sentinel Prime going into conniptions.

"Let me make it clear in case it was not already, President Ikari, I cannot allow Cybertronian technology to fall into the hands of other races. The Tyrest Accord is something both Autobot and Decepticon hold sacrosanct," Optimus warned. "Call off your scientists."

"No can do, Optimus," Ikari replied. "If anything, your little war on our world demonstrated how much we need every piece of advanced tech we can get. Don't forget, it was you who brought this conflict over into NUNS space. And it is you who need our help to look for that space cube of yours. So the question you need to ask yourself is, will it be you who makes that impossible?"

Optimus's eyes narrowed. "The Decepticons have a foothold on your world. Do not forget you need us to help you fight them, too."

"On the contrary, I've been looking at the preliminary reports, and it would appear that most of the kills were achieved either directly by or with the assistance of our forces," Ikari replied. "In addition, they're only here because you're here. Which again brings us back to the part where you owe us for all that we've done for you people already."

"Don't be so naïve," Prime said. "Do you think for a moment that the Decepticons would just leave even if you extradited us? You sit on a planet occupied for eons by the Insecticons – what you call Vajra. All that fold quartz – do you think the Decepticons would be content to simply trade for it, when they could simply gather their forces and take what they want? Sooner or later there will be conflict."

"And when that happens, we'll be ready," Ikari replied. "We'd appreciate it if you stopped patronizing us. If anything, this most recent skirmish demonstrates that as long as we shoot one of your kind enough, they can be killed by our weaponry. It's just a matter of how much, and the more we study these Decepticons the better we can defend ourselves against them. Honestly, Prime, I see no reason other than blind adherence to an old law that has you so adamantly opposed to our study of the Decepticon bodies."

"Perhaps I can offer a middle ground," another voice cut in through the conversation. It was General Nyurchjatzi, commanding officer of all Zentradi forces in the Frontier fleet. "My adviser and I have been crunching the numbers. We propose that you dispose of the bodies for which you struck the killing blows as you see fit, as well as those of your deceased comrades. However, we will be keeping the ones for which we struck the killing blows, which at the moment seem to be the ones you call Astrotrain, Bonecrusher, Skywarp – if we can find it, that is – and some of the drones dropped by Soundwave."

Optimus Prime thought it over for a few seconds. Though the time was short, each of his logic and emotional processes was competing with each other as well as those of his teammates, exchanging data packets and parameters at near-constant rates. Then, with a heavy sigh, he made his response.

"Consensus reached. We agree to this."

"Good," Ikari replied. "There will be a strategic meeting held later tonight to discuss the lessons learned from this conflict. We were hoping that your people could consult and advise to our mutual benefit."

"Do not push it too far, President Ikari. We will consider this. Optimus out."

* * *

A/N: The one thing I wished to make clear in this chapter is that the previous battles had all been the Decepticons fighting in terms highly favorable to them. We now see what happens when the opposite happens – when they end up in a straight-up slugfest against a highly numerically superior enemy whose offensive tech is not that far down below their defensive tech. To the ones complaining about transformerwank, keep in mind that in all the previous engagements, things were rather small-scale, with pretty much everything that's not numerical superiority stacked in the Decepticons' favor. Now a bunch of their advantages are gone, and as you can see the tables have turned.


End file.
